Cuban baseball player Raidel Martínez, who ended his relationship with the Chunichi Dragons, is hired by Yomiuri Giants for a record amount in Japan / Facebook/Francys Romero
14ymedio, Havana, 17 December 2024 — Raidel Martínez has become the crown jewel for the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB). From his recently obtained contract for $32,500,000 with the Yomiuri Giants for four seasons in the Japanese Professional Baseball League, the state coffers will collect $6,500,000, more than $1,600,000 per season.
According to the Pelota Cubana journalist, Yordano Carmona, the FCB keeps 20% of the payment for its players’ contracts, but “the big question is ’What is done with that money?’” he asks in the YouTube program Deportes sin Barreras [Sports Without Borders]. Martínez, one of the best closers in the Japanese league, is not the only case. Another 20 Cuban athletes sponsored by the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) have been hired by different countries under similar terms.
In addition to Raidel Martínez, who has just ended his contract with Chunichi Dragons, Carlos Monier, Liván Moinelo, Frank Abel Álvarez, Cristian Rodríguez, Darío Sarduy and Ariel Martínez have secured agreements this year. Two other players are in Mexico, six in Italy and four more in Canada.
According to coach Julio Estrada, the FCB can directly negotiate agreements with the teams that hire their athletes. However, in the case of “large contracts,” the Island has the support of “a Japanese lawyer.” Unlike agents looking for better salaries, “the federation limits itself to listening to the offer and what it will receive” and passes the document to the player to sign. “The Inder doesn’t even know about the negotiation; it is only informed what will be deposited in the account so that it can collect the commission.”
In minor contracts, he clarifies, “the Japanese team passes money to the FCB based on what the players earn monthly.” Estrada had already denounced, in conversation with Pelota Cubana USA, that the money goes into the pockets of the Federation.
Raidel Martínez’s multi-million dollar contract with Yomiuri Giants exceeds the $26,000,000 of Roberto Osuna and Liván Moinelo / Chunichi Dragons
Raidel Martínez’s contract is “a historic agreement,” journalist Francys Romero highlighted on his social networks. It exceeds the 26,000,000 dollars of Roberto Osuna and Liván Moinelo. Although, the specialist said, “Martínez would have obtained offers of between 50 and 70 million dollars if he had decided to enter the Major League market” of the United States.
The athlete signed a contract for a record amount with the oldest team on the circuit and the leader of the regular season in the Central League. “This is a very good opportunity for me because my dream is to be in a Japanese Series and be able to win it,” Martínez told Pelota Cubana USA.
The former Chunichi Dragons’ star closer has accumulated 166 saved games in seven seasons and his average of clean runs is 1.71, in addition to 353 strikeouts recorded in 310.2 innings pitched.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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In four years, his administration will have ended “and Cuba, socialist Cuba, will be here,” says Fernández de Cossío
The Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío / Minrex
EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 17 December 2024 — The Government of Cuba denied this Tuesday that it is uncomfortable with the political rapprochement with the United States – which will be 10 years old this December 17 – and acknowledged that it is “concerned” about the economic effect that a second Trump term may have.
“Of course we are concerned about the effect that this can have on our economy and, in particular, the effect that greater US hostility can have on the population’s standard of living, which has proven to be powerful and has a very effective destructive capacity to cause damage,” said Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío.
These statements were made within the framework of the dialogue forum on relations between Havana and Washington, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the so-called thaw.
Fernández de Cossío also stated that the most catastrophic scenarios for Cuba that are being outlined following Trump’s election are those desired by the Cuban population in Florida, but he considered that “it can’t be of interest to the North American nation as a whole” that an increase in instability and violence on the Island materializes. continue reading
“It can’t be of interest to the North American nation as a whole” that an increase in instability and violence on the Island materializes
Despite those omens, he was convinced that the regime will resist a new Trump presidency. “We know we’re going to be able to survive. In four years, the Trump government will have ended, and Cuba, socialist Cuba, will be here,” Fernández de Cossío said.
Moments before, in the dialogue forum, the deputy minister acknowledged that these next four years may not be easy for the country, which has been plunged into a serious economic and energy crisis for years.
Regarding the outgoing US president, he regretted that Biden has maintained the bulk of the sanctions imposed by his predecessor and that he did not remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
“The United States knows that Cuba does not sponsor terrorism. But it also knows perfectly well the damage it is capable of causing by keeping Cuba on the list, and that is the purpose it has pursued,” he said.
In addition, the deputy minister denied that the regime felt uncomfortable with the approach advocated by the administration of former US President Barack Obama (2009-2017), which led to the thaw, as pointed out in an interview with EFE by the then-US ambassador to Havana, Jeffrey DeLaurentis.
“Cuba fulfilled all the commitments it made, since our goal was to advance. The U.S. government violated almost all of them. So it is very difficult to say that Cuba was uncomfortable with the thaw,” he argued.
“Cuba fulfilled all the commitments it made, since our goal was to advance”
The vice-chancellor added that “the euphoria” that existed in the country, “the support that there was from our people and the willingness we had to move forward, even with the permanence of the economic blockade* – let’s remember that it wasn’t lifted – is more than a reliable demonstration that Cuba had the disposition and the will to move forward.”
Previously, when speaking at the dialogue forum, he maintained that “the brief rapprochement was positive for Cuba and the United States, and it aroused the respect, congratulations and admiration of many of the world governments.”
However, he pointed out that Washington failed to comply with “practically all” the commitments it reached with Cuba (while Havana kept “every one”) and stressed that, since the arrival of Castroism on the Island, “what has prevailed” on the part of the United States “has been aggression.”
“In this difficult relationship there is an aggressor country and an attacked country,” said the deputy minister, who also spoke of a “difficult coexistence” and said that Cuba will continue to be “consistent” in its position of seeking cooperation and understanding with Washington.
Translated by Regina Anavy
*Editor’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.
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Some faithful readers miss getting “guidance” from the Communist Party
Mail carriers cannot leave valuables such as bicycles, packages, money or letters on the ground floors of some buildings. / “5 de Septiembre”
14ymedio, Havana, 9 November 2024 — A symbol of the regime since its creation in 1965 and its flagship publication, the Communist Party newspaper “Granma” is finding it difficult these days to reach remote parts of Cuba. There are still readers out there — few in number and all with grey hair — who trust what is printed on its pages. “Invasor,”another official media outlet whose own distribution problems are the worst they have ever been, complained on Friday of being “cutoff” from the newspaper known for its red and black type.
Osmayda Valdés, director of the Ciego de Ávila post office and the region’s head postmaster, appeared before the newspaper’s TV cameras — “Invasor” has its own digital broadcast channel — to defend her agency and explain why deliveries of “Granma” and other national newspapers such as “Juventud Rebelde” are routinely delayed.
In an awkward interview, Valdés explained that the newspapers are not shipped from Havana nor are they printed — as as they are in several provinces — at a printing press in Ciego de Ávila. Instead, they have to be fetched from Sancti Spíritus along with packages from Villa Clara province, whose printing press is the only one in the region that has the requisite printing capabilities. It is a logistical nightmare. “The fact is that the press is a daily operation,” she explained, stating the obvious. continue reading
Previously, the Cuban Postal Service (Correos) was responsible for delivering the papers for distribution. “Now we have to go pick them up,” complained Valdés, who was at pains to describe an even more cumbersome delivery process that involved a daily trek from Camagüey to Villa Clara which required drivers to deliver packages to post offices on their return.
Previously, the Cuban Postal Service was responsible for delivering the papers for distribution. “Now we have to go pick them up”
“What is causing the problem,” asked the interviewer bluntly.”We’ve gotten a lot of complaints from the public about not getting their daily newspaper.” Valdés summed it up in a single phrase: “It’s the postmen.” Of the thirty-five mail carriers the province needs, only eight are currently working. “Vistahermosa, a township in Ciego de Ávila, is the most affected because we do not have a single postman in that area,” Valdés said.
The interview then asked about fuel, noting that one of Correos’ main excuses is that there is no way to transport the newspapers from one place to another before distributing them. “It’s not like that,”Valdés replied defensively. She explained that the system is working in the main town though things could be better. “The biggest problem is in the small towns,”she said, especially Morón, Gaspar y Baraguá.
The postmaster describes an extreme situation in which these towns do not have fuel or transportation. “Or anything else,” she added. “We had to make a deal with [Correos’] package delivery service to use their vehicles to deliver the papers two or three times a week. It depends on how regularly fuel is delivered.”
Getting back to the issue of customer complaints, the interviewer turned her attention to subscribers who have paid for newspapers but have, so far, not received notification or compensation when the papers were late or never delivered. “This has been going on for a long time,” said the interviewer. “Day after day, many people are not receiving it. They tell us they have paid for it but are not getting it.”
Valdés washed her hands of the matter, saying that subscribers have every right to file complaints but did not indicate to whom or in what instances. “If there is no mail carrier to make the delivery, then the local government assumes responsibility. Once we are able to hire a mailman — someone who has to meet certain criteria because he will be delivering checks, social assistance, money orders, packages and certified letters – we will be better staffed. Subscribers will not be inconvenienced and [the mailman’s] contract will be renewed,” she promised.
Eventually, the interviewer turned to the topic the postmaster most wanted to talk about: telling the public that Correos is looking for mail carriers. Faced with a workforce depleted by a nationwide exodus of emigrants and labor, the company is hiring. “In the past, we didn’t have transportation for the mailmen but now we do,” Valdés said. Rather than the cars and trucks that it once used, she noted that Correos now provides “Niagara bicycles in good condition.”
“The main issue is screening potential mailmen. We have already told the Ministry of Labour how many positions we need to fill, so any applicants who go there can be sent straight to the company so we can assess their qualifications. We have the transportation. What we need is the personnel,” she concluded.
For years, “Invasor” has been reporting on problems that Valdés blamed on transportation issues, which she described on Friday as “temporary”
For years, “Invasor” has been reporting on problems that Valdés, who has been on the job for less than a year, blamed on transportation issues, which she described on Friday as “temporary.” Last February, when, Lídisy Rodríguez was head of Correos, the newspaper complained about “the shortage of human resources plaguing a not insignificant number of agencies.”
The article was a belated response to a complaint made in 2023 by several subscribers and published in the letters section of “Camisa de Fuerza” (“Straightjacket”). At the time, a reader identified as Arquímides Morales bemoaned the irresponsibility of Correos, which had not delivered his copy of “Granma” for years.
Morales explained the reason why, pointing out that all the mail carriers working in his area had been fired for suspicion of being involved in criminal activity, adding that mail service has been poor ever since.
Correos defended itself, claiming that Morales lived in a building with a gated entry, which prevented the mailman from leaving valuables such as his bicycle, packages, money or letters on the ground floor unattended. He had to wait until the interested party came downstairs to collect his newspaper in person. For three and a half hours — from 7:30 AM till 11 AM — a mailman had to deliver 400 copies of “Granma,” 200 of “Juventud Rebelde,” 400 of “Trabajadores” and 400 of “Invasor.”
In 2023, “Invasor” posed a question to Correos: “Do we really have to exhaust ourselves making complaints…? We expect, like Archimedes, for an answer, which we hope he will eventually be able to read for himself in these pages.” Nevertheless, the problem persisted. Months later, in the February article, the newspaper capitulated. “It seems that Arquímides Morales López will not be receiving a response either personally or through these pages.
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The journalist and writer maintained his curiosity to explore the oral records of Cuba, rarely reflected in the official media, until the end of his life.
With the death of Argelio Santiesteban we lose an encyclopedic author who never let himself be trapped in his writing by ideological slogans or dogma / En Vivo
14ymedio, Havana, 27 November 2024 — Journalist and writer Argelio Santiesteban died this Tuesday in Havana at the age of 79, as confirmed on the radio station Radio Progreso’s Facebook account . The professor, scriptwriter and linguist is well known among readers for his work El habla popular cubana de hoy (Popular Cuban Speech of Today) for which, at the time of his death, he was preparing a fourth edition.
“Owner of all the words in the universe, violent guardian of useful words, monster of the adjective in order, feared for his verb, hated for his excellent humor,” is how journalist Elsie Carbo described him in a brief obituary published on Wednesday. Other colleagues and friends joined in the remembrance of a man whose lively conversation and rustic writing distinguished him amidst the soporific official press.
Born in Banes, in the current province of Holguín, in 1945, he learned to love books and good conversation through his father, a cultured man and a Mason. With the mischief that permeated all his stories, he related on one occasion that family example: “I am its diminished and botched second edition, and like my venerable father, I am a passionate lover of good sayings.”
The cultural context in Banes also contributed to his predilection for verbal turns, long conversations and good books. In particular, he recalled the influence that the magazine Portada, founded in 1953 , had in those early years, as it covered local topics but also historical reviews and daily cartoons. He defined his homeland as that “triangle where our nationality was forged,” because Holguín was the birthplace of Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro, Guillermo Cabrera Infante and Reinaldo Arenas, among many other figures in politics and literature. continue reading
The cultural context in Banes also helped his predilection for verbal turns, extended conversations and good books.
His participation in the Literacy Campaign in 1961 brought him closer to the way of speaking of the residents of the Sierra Maestra, a knowledge that he later complemented with other ways of saying things during his more than half century living in Havana. For five years he was a professor of Spanish and literature in the feared Castillo del Príncipe prison in the Cuban capital. This experience of teaching among “assassins and thieves” helped him to better understand the jargon of “the bad life in Havana,” according to the ethnologist Fernando Ortiz (1881-1969).
Popular Cuban Speech of Today was born, precisely, from those multiple life experiences and from his constant immersion in the oral expressions that were heard in the cities and countryside of the Island. Santiesteban’s curiosity to explore those registers, rarely reflected in official media but widespread in homes and streets, remained with him until the end of his life.
In 1983 he was awarded the first edition of the National Critics’ Prize, an award that was placed in his hands by Manuel Moreno Fraginals (1920-2001), the author of El Ingenio, a key text for understanding the history of the Island, the birth of the sugar industry and the very identity of Cubans.
For his part, poet José Prats Sariol recalled on Wednesday that the Cuban Academy of Language never admitted Santiesteban among its members and described the journalist as a “brilliant lexicographer and writer of customs on a par with Eladio Secades,” a reporter who excelled in sports reporting and customs in the Cuban press of the 20th century.
Santiesteban also published his columns in various national media, where he addressed curiosities of popular speech, scientific discoveries, humorous texts and also brought to light small chronicles of the past, with musicians, politicians and intellectuals as protagonists. Among his titles, there is also Uno y el mismo (One and the same ) (1994), Picardía cubiche (Cubic Picardy) (1994), Anécdotas de Cuba (Anecdotes of Cuba ) (1999) and the volume on toponymy Cuando el pueblo juega a ser Papá Dios (When the people played at being Papa God) (2011), among others.
With his death, we lose an encyclopedic author who never let himself be trapped in his writing by ideological slogans or dogma. Through his texts he spoke of that profound Cuba that is not spoken of from the podiums or on national television.
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Generations emerged conditioned to accept an immutable political order
Cuban flag propped up on D’Strampes Street, in the Havana neighborhood of La Víbora / 14ymedio/Archive
14ymedio, Karel J. Leyva, Montreal, 14 December 2024 — Being part of a nation goes beyond inhabiting a territory or sharing a common history. As Benedict Anderson maintains, the nation is an “imagined community,” a collective project that is born from the ability of people to identify with a wider group and commit to a shared future. This concept is not inherent; it is actively built through institutions, culture and, fundamentally, citizen participation.
The nation is not defined by a specific territory. The Kurdish nation, for example, persists without a recognized independent state, while the Kurds are scattered across several countries. The same can be said of the Inuit, whether from Canada, Alaska or Greenland, and of the Sami, present in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. No one, unless they aspire to tell the truth, could say that there is no Inuit, Sami or Kurdish nation. These peoples share more than a common language or culture. They are nations not by their territory or by their genealogy, but by their collective identity. It is this identity that allows individuals to think in terms of “us” no matter where they are, and without renouncing either their rational autonomy or their collective project.
Thinking collectively as a nation is antithetical to submitting to a collectivism imposed vertically by the State. In the same way that a nation exists when the same political, social and cultural status is shared, it is fractured when the national identity ceases to be the binding link of the various plural identities that coexist in society and becomes a space of exclusion. continue reading
Thinking collectively as a nation is antithetical to submitting to a collectivism imposed vertically by the State
This explains why, while the caudillos and sycophants of the Cuban communist regime defended the Marxist-Leninist ideal of a collective identity for the Cuban people, in reality what they did was destroy the very essence of the Cuban nation, diminishing the ability of Cubans to think collectively, freely, without fear of offending the despotic narcissism of a tyrant. The cornerstone of the revolutionary project was never a national ideal, because national ideals do not divide citizens between loyal and disloyal, friends and traitors, heroes and villains. The national ideal, by nature, is plural, because it does not depend on a unitary doctrine, much less on an imported ideology with the purpose of colonizing minds and dominating wills.
The communist narrative exalted the collective as the only means to overcome the inequalities of capitalism, but this ideal implied the total subordination of individual interests to a single, exclusive and authoritarian party. Behind the rhetoric of the community was hidden a project of centralization of power that stripped Cubans of their political agency. The nationalization of private property and the means of production did not seek so much to redistribute resources as to strengthen a structure that eliminated any form of opposition or pluralism.
Stripped of freedoms, rights and autonomy, the Cubans were subjected to a single political party that stood as the only guarantor of national objectives. This implied a redefinition of the collective: no longer as a space for deliberation and participation, but as a mechanism of subordination, dependence and emotional control, validated by the State. Citizen dispossession, social control and the suppression of any autonomous organization fostered a culture of mutual distrust, weakening the social fabric and replacing cooperation with obedience.
Spiritual leaders became public enemies. Art and creativity were co-opted as censorship instruments. Children were subjected to an indoctrination that could only nullify the capacity for critical thinking, homogenize their perspectives and prepare them to think not as a nation but as subjects of a political apparatus. Instead of individuals capable of imagining and building alternatives to the regime, generations emerged conditioned to accept an immutable political order.
The consequences of all this created a politically disjointed population structurally dependent on the State, and an ideal of national collectivity transmuted into an ideological machinery of conformity. This explains, in large part, what Cuba is today: a fragmented society, where individuals are forced to focus on daily survival, rather than on collective national transformation. Meanwhile, the political elites plunder the country with total impunity, while indefinitely postponing the progress of the Cuban nation.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Of the 37 players who made up the dazzling Cuban team of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, 25 have left the country
The Industriales of Havana have won the National Baseball Series 12 times / Cubadebate
14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 13 December 2024 — The Industriales of Havana of the 1995-1996 campaign is one of the teams most remembered by their own and strangers.
14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, December 13, 2024 — The Industriales of Havana of the 1995-1996 campaign is one of the teams most remembered by their own and strangers. With a team of great new players, it broke the hegemony of the Azucareros of Villa Clara, who were looking for their fourth consecutive National Baseball Series. Today, however, it is no more than the epitome of the situation of national sport on the Island, bled by migration.
One of the players of the “Blues,” Jesús Ametller, recounted on Facebook the current whereabouts of his former teammates. Of the 37 members, 25 left the country in search of better opportunities, despite the fact that they had years of good baseball health on the Island. In 1996, for example, Team Cuba repeated the Olympic gold – undefeated – at the Atlanta Games. In fact, Cuba won three gold and two silver medals in 16 years, from 1992 to 2008.
Eight of the 13 members of the pitching staff currently reside abroad: Orlando Hernández, Ernesto Noris, Luis Alberto González, Agustín Marquetti Jr., Ángel Díaz, Pablo Miguel Abreu, Leonardo Tamayo and Juan Carlos Llanes; while Jorge Fumero alternates stays between Italy and Cuba. Only Lázaro Valle, René Espín, Juan Rafael Despaigne and Osnel Blas continue reading
Bocourt live on the Island.
Out of the nine starters of the Industriales team that won the National Baseball Series 28 years ago, only Germán Mesa remains in Cuba
As for the catchers, they all emigrated: Ricardo Miranda, Francisco Santiesteban, Bárbaro Cañizares and Michel Hernández.
Regarding the players who ran the bases, six out of eight also looked for better opportunities abroad: Roberto Colina, Juan Padilla, Luis Pestana, Lázaro Vargas, Vladimir Hernández and Ametller himself, who published the list, while Germán Mesa and Alexander Malleta stayed in the country.
Javier Méndez, Carlos Tabares and William Ortega, all of them outfielders, also emigrated; the only one who stayed in the country was Juan Francisco Cuéllar.
Finally, as for the management, Pedro Medina – considered by many one of the best catchers of all time in Cuban baseball, chosen among the 100 best athletes of the twentieth century in the country – resides on the Island, along with Eulalio Linares, Enrique Rojas and Fidel Ramírez. His colleagues Ángel Leocadio Díaz and Reinaldo Batista decided to leave.
On the list are two members who have passed away: one of the coaches, Juan Gómez, and the outfielder Orbe Luis Rodríguez.
Swing Completo says that out of the nine starters on the Industriales team that won the National Baseball Series 28 years ago, only Germán Mesa remains in Cuba.
About 1,100 athletes have fled in the last decade. Most of them, 635, have been baseball players, according to a count by the official weekly Trabajadores, in January 2022. Since then, the numbers have continued to grow. The exile also includes coaches from various disciplines, many of whom have already delivered results with other nations, as happened in Paris 2024, where 50 trainers in 30 countries harvested 28 medals with their athletes, triple those achieved by the Cuban delegation (barely nine).
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Random “crashes” multiply, and a fourth total blackout is feared
The ’Cankuthan Bey’ floating power plant [’patana’] in the port of Havana / 14ymedio14ymedio, Madrid, 14 December 2024 — Five days after the arrival in Havana of the new Turkish floating power plant, the Cankuthan Bey, the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) acknowledged its presence. The UNE confirmed on X this Friday that, as published by 14ymedio, the ‘patana’, as the plants are called, arrived last Sunday. However, it also said that the plant will not alleviate the energy situation in any way, because it is in the country only “to work on starting up its units and once concluded will leave Cuba.”
The brief tweet adds: “This floating power plant is not part of the UNE contract with the Turkish company Karen Dis Ticaret.” This also confirms the denial of the state company, on October 25, of the report offered by the official journalist Luis Carlos Céspedes, who had stated that the Island had contracted a new floating power plant from Turkey, one of the “most modern” with the capacity to contribute between 50 and 80 megawatts (MW) to the electricity grid, which represented “significant support in the midst of the current electricity supply problems.”
“The arrival of a new Floating Patana is not true. We ask all users to consult our official pages,” the UNE requested in its information channels
“This floating power plant is not part of the UNE contract with the Turkish company Karen Dis Ticaret”
It was foreseeable, in any case, that, with only 80 MW of production, the contribution of the Cankuthan Bey plant to the national electrical system (SEN) would be modest. For this Friday, the state-owned company predicted a deficit that, as usual, exceeded 1,000 MW (1,025), with a demand of 3,020 MW and an availability of 1,995 MW. The real “affectation” would continue reading
be 1,095 MW, at peak time, late at night, although, as also happens day by day, it was finally greater, 1,412 MW.
For the same demand, this Saturday, the UNE predicts less availability, 1,892 MW, with which there will be a minimum deficit of 1,128 MW. The expected affectation at peak time is 1,198 MW.
Cubans continue to suffer constant blackouts, and although the UNE explains through its social networks that they are due to random “crashes,” many fear a fourth total blackout before the end of the year. The first occurred on October 18, when the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant, the largest in the country, left the SEN, something that was repeated in the third crash of the system, on December 4. The second complete blackout occurred on November 6, with the passage of Hurricane Rafael through the western part of the Island, whose effects continue.
The power cuts have also affected the sale of fuel, which in itself is scarce. This Friday, in one of the Telegram groups through which the authorities try to organize the gas lines – which can take three days – manager Pedro Garce reported the interruption of service at the Cupet Tángana, in El Vedado, Havana, due a broken pump. “Do not come to the service center; we will let you know when it’s fixed,” he wrote in capital letters in the group. A little later, he added: “The Tángana gas pump is still broken, now accompanied by electrical problems. Don’t worry, when it’s restored we’ll let you know.” Early this Saturday, he reported the repair: “The engine fuel pump in the Tángana was repaired, and another one was incorporated. We readjusted the call [for customers] from 8 am today.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Periodically, despotic regimes resort to purging their officials because they are no longer trusted by the supreme leader
The most important dismissal has been that of Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, considered a potential candidate of the Castro regime to be president in 2028. / Radio Sancti Spíritus
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 15 December 2024 — It is constantly mentioned that the leader of the regime in Cuba, at least on paper, the inept Miguel Diaz-Canel, is immersed in a purge of officials who do not offer guarantees of continuity to totalitarianism. Many have been fired, and by all indications the list will grow.
Periodically, despotic regimes resort to purging their officers, not because they commit some crime – they are all criminals – but because they are no longer trusted by the supreme leader, the most important endorsement to be part of those governments.
In Cuba, the first purges took place in the remnants of the insurrectionary process. In July 1959, Fidel Castro committed a coup d’état against the nominal president Manuel Urrutia Lleó. Next came the dismissal and imprisonment of Commander Huber Matos and his men, followed by the cleansing of less notable personalities, up to the process of the microfaction.*
Months after Fidel Castro declared, in 1961, that the revolution was communist – he had emphatically denied it in the first years of the triumph- the first great purge took place within the framework of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations, ORIs, with the dismissal, in 1962, of Aníbal Escalante, leader of the Popular Socialist Party. This situation was repeated in 1966-68, as my admired colleague and friend Luis Cino wrote, in the largest legal action against the communists in the history of Cuba, and this did not occur under the mandates of Gerardo Machado or Fulgencio Batista, but under the omnipresent authority of Fidel Castro. continue reading
The constant struggles within Castroism, genuine wolf fights, led to the dismissal in 1968 of Ramiro Valdés, the once almighty and bloodthirsty Minister of the Interior
The microfraction was very useful to the maximum leader because it sent the Kremlin a resounding message of who was the master of the game. Moscow broke with its historical subjects of the Popular Socialist Party and allied itself with this upstart who guaranteed it a new and more effective servitude.
The microfraction was a great scandal in which Raúl Castro served as the main accuser. The accused, almost forty of them, were sentenced to different prison sentences, among them a man who became aware, like few others, of the damage that the new regime would cause to Cubans. Ricardo Bofill Pagés,** years later and in prison, would sow the foundations to promote new forms of fighting against totalitarianism.
The constant struggles within Castroism, genuine wolf fights, led to the dismissal in 1968 of Ramiro Valdés, the once almighty and bloodthirsty Minister of the Interior, for rivalry with Raúl, the brother of the pharaoh. However, “Ramirito” was irreplaceable in his role as executioner, which is why he never stopped being in the front row of power.
It is appropriate to recognize that the bloodiest purge of Castroism, without alluding to the numerous and inexplicable deaths of generals and doctors that occurred in recent years, was the one that occurred in 1989, when General Arnaldo Ochoa and three senior officers of the armed forces, Antonio de la Guardia, Jorge Martínez and Amado Padrón Trujillo, were sentenced to death and shot. Others involved were given prison sentences.
The political purges are closely related to the insecurity and fear suffered by the leadership of the government
A known sequel to this was the death of Jose Abrahantes, a famous Castro hitman who served 20 years in prison before they killed him by inducing a heart attack .
The political purges are closely related to the insecurity and fear suffered by the leadership of the government. Thus, the inept Miguel Diaz-Canel, in recent months, has dismissed several important players in the Government and the party.
A key figure in the regime was the former Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil, who was fired in February and subsequently accused of corruption. However, the most important dismissal hierarchically, has been that of Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, a young man with vast government experience who was considered a potential candidate for president in 2028, if the regime survives until that date. The cork on which it has been floating all these years seems to be taking in water.
Translator’s notes
* In 1968, a group of almost 40 officials in the Cuban Communist party and other organizations known as the “microfaction” was completely purged from the government. They endorsed Soviet-style material incentives over “moral enthusiasm” to encourage workers. Accused of conspiring against the state, they were sentenced to prison.
** Bofill and a group of friends founded the Cuban Committee for Human Rights in 1976. He passed away in Miami in 2019.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A pound of the popular food sells for 400 pesos while last January it cost 100
A tomato seller in the Youth Labor Army market on Tulipán Street in the neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado, Havana / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 15 December 2024 — In salad it is delicious; converted into sauce, a delicacy; and thrown towards a stage a real insult. The tomato has the ability to mutate in every circumstance. The many dishes that are made with this fruit are so numerous that there are even recipes for tomato syrups and tomato jams. Its versatility is accompanied, of course, by a brake: the current prices.
This Sunday morning a table in the Youth Labor Army market on Tulipán Street in Nuevo Vedado, Havana, attracted the curious. A pile of tomatoes displayed a price that initially unleashed curiosity. “I approached because I saw that they were at 200 pesos a pound. On the street they reach 300, and a few days ago I bought them at 400,” says Odalis, a frequent customer of the place, previously managed almost entirely by the Armed Forces but with more and more private stalls.
In most markets in the Cuban capital, the tomato disappears during the hottest months and returns when temperatures begin to drop. However, there are shops like the one at 19 and B in El Vedado, mockingly called La Boutique for its high prices, which has the product on sale all year round. In agricultural areas, such as Sancti Spíritus, the Plaza Boulevard also maintains a stable supply.
“The price has also skyrocketed because of the recent measures applied to the MSMEs, and tomato sauce will soon go missing “
Although the tomato maintained its presence from January to December, with the exception of last July, on the shelves in Sancti Spíritus the price has risen or decreased depending on the quality of the fruit and demand. Now, a pound of tomatoes costs 400 pesos, while last January it cost 100. The price continue reading
increase seems to be influenced by the proximity of the end of the year, with festivities that give the tomato a prominent place in a salad to accompany the pork, rice, beans and cassava.
“The price has also skyrocketed because of the recent measures applied to the MSMEs [Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises], and tomato sauce will soon go missing,” adds a resident of Reparto Kilo 12. “People have to make their own sauce because the private markets are closed. Many businesses are in liquidation. They are not going to continue, because they fear [being fined by] the inspectors.”
Although the tomato maintained its presence from January to December, with the exception of last July, on the shelves of Sancti Spíritus, its price has risen or decreased depending on the quality of the fruit and demand / 14ymedio
Meanwhile in Havana, Odalis thought she had come across a great offer in the EJT market, but it was just a mirage. “As soon as I stood in front of the table I realized why the price was only 200 pesos a pound,” she says with frustration. “They smell rotten and are being sold at a discount. Look at the skin: there are bruises, dents and cuts. “Maybe they could still be used to make sauce, but this is not the best variety for that.”
When she talks about a variety of tomatoes, the woman enters a territory unknown to many young Cubans. “People from before do know these things. Cherry tomatoes are perfect for sauce, because they have much more pulp, fewer seeds and also very thin skin,” she explains. “Between December and January, my mother made all the tomato sauce we consumed in our house.”
The preparation of those sauces was a moment of family reunion. “They put us children to work washing the tomatoes, and my father prepared the wood stove on the patio, because at that time we lived in Santiago de las Vegas and had a good space outside with fruit trees.” The mother and grandmother took turns in front of the huge pot, stirring with a wooden pallet “that looked more like an oar than a spoon.”
“They smell rotten. These tomatoes have gone bad and are not good to sell to people”
Then came the method for preparing tomato sauce: “scrub the bottles, boil them and keep the lids ready.” The tomatoes were pounded and strained to separate the seeds and pieces of skin; “a little seasoning and salt were added, and then the sauce was simmered in a pot on the stove until it thickened.” Finally, it was put into the sterilized jars with airtight lids and stored in a dark place “unexposed to the sun. ” All that was left was to “enjoy that sauce in a good stew or with some spaghetti.”
But the fall in agricultural production and the arrival of a wide variety of imported sauces buried that tradition. On digital sites that sell food for emigrants to buy for their relatives on the Island, a 12-oz. can of tomato paste costs $2.50. For those who have foreign currency there are many options. Lighter or thicker sauces, seasoned or low in salt, with pieces of tomato or finely filtered. There is even tomato juice, much appreciated for mixing with certain alcoholic beverages.
On those sites there are containers of cherry tomatoes with or without skin, sofritos [fried onion, garlic and tomato to be used in a sauce] that include peppers and carrots, in addition to some locally produced sauces that are undervalued due to the frequent adulteration suffered by such mixtures- cheaper, but with an unpredictable flavor. For those who prefer the fresh product to use in salads, robust, fleshy tomatoes with shiny skin are offered. All fruits have a bright red tone and are paid for with the green bills of the “enemy’s currency.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The power cut of more than 30 hours, leaving mobile phones and radios without charge, left Holguín residents unaware of the arrival of Hurricane Oscar / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Holguín, 20 October 2024 – Hundreds of Holguín residents have been gathering en masse since this morning at retail outlets of liquid gas, in order to buy fuel that will allow them to cook food over the coming days before the arrival of hurricane Oscar. According to the island’s Meteorology Institute, Insmet, the hurricane will hit eastern Cuba this Sunday at category level 1 and with winds of up to 140 km/h.
“There are more than 300 people here, and there are even more of them stretching around the corner”, Mariana, a resident of Hilda Torres provincial district explains to 14ymedio; she has joined the queue for gas at sales point number 14. “There are 18 points in total and all are in the same situation”.
Because of the huge power cut that has affected the island since Friday morning, Mariana has lost a number of food items. “A lot of things have gone off because the fridge stopped working”. In that situation, she says, she doesn’t know how she’s going to cope with hurricane Oscar, which threatens to bring heavy rains to the western provinces.
To make things worse, she points out, the hurricane will arrive at a moment of maximum tension when official information is only circulating on social media but internet connections are sparse and unstable. “I have a radio connected to a rechargeable lamp, and taking this up to the third floor we can manage to hear some reports”, the woman explains, but adds that her situation is “privileged” because “although more than half of Holguín continue reading
residents know that a hurricane is coming they don’t have any details about it”.
The General Staff of Cuban Civil Defence put out an alert on Saturday night, before Sunday’s impact of the hurricane on the east of the island. The hurricane, which, the day before had reached category 1, also threatens the Turks and Caicos islands and the southeast Bahamas, according to the U.S National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The Municipal Defence Council session in Nuevitas before the “fake news” declaration about Hurricane Oscar / Facebook /Yara de Cuba
Sitting opposite Miguel Díaz-Canel at a nighttime meeting which produced more promises than solutions, the authorities issued advice to Guantánamo, Holguín and Las Tunas, Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Camagüey.
At six in the morning the eye of the hurricane lay over the island of Gran Inagua in the eastern Bahamas, at 130 km to the northeast of Punta de Maisí, at the extreme eastern edge of Cuba, and at 240 km to the east of Punta Lucrecia, Holguín. When it arrives this afternoon on the north coast of the provinces of Guantánamo and Holguín its speed and movement will gradually start to diminish.
Image of hurricane Oscar’s trajectory / Conagua
Civil Defence directed an increase in vigilance, in risk reduction and an increased watch on areas which are most vulnerable. “People are advised to keep an eye on information from Insmet and the Civil Defence, and to comply with instructions”, he added.
Insmet specialists forecast for Sunday a gradual increase in the area of showers, “rain and electrical storms – which may be intense in some eastern and mountainous areas”. There are also warnings of increased wind speeds, which, in the afternoon and evening will reach between 85 and 100 km/h.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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With few screening rooms and precarious means, the once prestigious cultural festival is in complete decline
Cine Chaplin, during the day of the Havana festival devoted to Palestinian films / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 14 December 2024 — A journalist takes notes on the terrace of the Hotel Nacional in Havana while interviewing an Argentine film director. At another table, an actress poses for photographers, and, in the beautiful garden, a feature film producer asks a young cameraman to take several shots of the Malecón. The unreal bubble breaks as soon as you leave the imposing building that brings together the main guests of the Havana Film Festival.
“I have come for more than 20 years almost every December, with the exception of the break due to the pandemic,” a Latin American reporter who prefers to remain anonymous tells 14ymedio. “This year I have been very affected by the low quality of the Festival and the number of beggars that are seen around cinemas and hotels. I have not even been able to sit down and enjoy a coffee because immediately someone arrives asking for money or food.”
With a credential hanging around her neck, which opens the doors of all cinemas and parallel events, the freelance journalist has been attentive to every detail. “The first problem I came across is that the press release, which used to have all the information very well organized, is a disaster this year. They don’t even put the time accurately because they don’t know when the electricity will go off and they’ll have to suspend the projection.”
“The Festival has shrunk; now it’s only on 23rd Street”
“The Festival has shrunk; now it’s only on 23rd Street. The screenings used to be in other neighborhoods or in the Glauber Rocha room [municipality of La Lisa], for example, but that no longer exists,” she points out. The event has taken refuge in a few spaces where “a lot of the Cuban audience can’t come because of the fuel problem.”
For independent journalist Luis Cino, a collaborator of Cubanet, the reduction of screening rooms is a serious problem for the Havana cultural scene. “What kind of film festival is this in a city where out of 138 cinemas there are only four left (Yara, Charlie Chaplin, 23 and 12 and Acapulco), all in El Vedado, which is almost impossible to get to due to the lack of buses?” continue reading
To the few venues included in the program must be added the impairment caused by blackouts. “We arrived at the 23 and 12 cinema to see the movie Matar a hombre, by Orlando Mora Cabrera, and everything was in the dark. There was no poster or anything explaining if they were going to show it another day, a total lack of respect for the public,” says Anthony, 23, a student at the Enrique José Varona University of Pedagogical Sciences.
Cinema of 23 and 12, in El Vedado, Havana, in total blackout / 14ymedio
Together with his friends, the young man also spent an afternoon in front of the Chaplin cinema and was surprised by the red, green, white and black colors of the Palestinian flags hanging on the facade. Outside, an employee with a sad face urged passers-by to enter. “There were four cats in the main room. We went in to sit down because we were tired, and the others who were there were people who use the cinema to sleep because they don’t have a house.”
“The only moment of festival enthusiasm was the premiere of the series One Hundred Years of Solitude in the Yara,” says Anthony. “There were a lot of young people and it was nice, but the rest of the venues have been pretty dead. Almost all the theaters I entered were practically empty.” From a generation that consumes audiovisual material mainly on mobile devices, Anthony believes that “with this lack of charm, they will not attract people to the festival.”
This year not only were the places for the screenings limited but the event brought together only 110 films in competition, 89 fewer than last year, from 42 countries. Cuban productions of numerous filmmakers who have emigrated in recent years were missing from the festival. Their works either have been censored or they have decided not to present themselves as an act of protest over the lack of freedoms on the Island.
“I find it shameful that today someone sits down to quietly listen to the false speeches of violent men, liars, proven abusers and verified human rights violators,” said producer Claudia Calviño on her social networks. She and her husband, the independent journalist Abraham Jiménez Enoa, have been exiled. “Those who sit there (in the same place from where combat orders are given), to listen without question, without recognizing the suffering of the suppressed, are, in fact, endorsing impunity and oblivion.”
“It gives the impression that no one believes this and that they have put on the Festival so they can say that they did not suspend it”
Her attitude coincides with that maintained by Eliecer Jiménez Almeida, resident in Miami and director of the documentary Veritas (2021), who explains without mincing words his absence on the Billboard of the Festival. “Until Cuba freely exhibits the films of Orlando Jiménez Leal, Néstor Almendros, Jorge Ulla, León Ichaso, Iván Acosta, Miguel Coyula and a long list of directors among which I include myself, I am not interested. Solidarity for me is a matter of principle.”
To cover up the obvious reduction in venues and films suffered by the event, the official organizers placed platforms and sales kiosks along the main avenue of El Vedado and a stage at the intersection of 23rd and 12th streets for musicians and audiovisual materials. Public bathrooms outside the Chaplin Cinema increased the feeling that they were attending a carnival or a street fair.
Playwright and poet Norge Espinosa complained harshly about these additions in a text published in Café Fuerte: “I wonder what Alfredo Guevara would say about his poster plastered everywhere, with closed streets for musical presentations, gastronomy and a street-carnival atmosphere, in search of an image of what is supposedly popular. The festival never needed such things, nor the portable public toilets placed in front of the ICAIC [Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry].
For filmmaker Armando Capó, director of the film Agosto (2019), the diagnosis is very pessimistic. “The film festival has no soul. It has lost it despite the effort of its work team. This has been achieved by speeches that rewrite history. The annulment of Cuban filmmakers. The idiotic carnivalization of the spectacle.” In his opinion, the event “looked like a representation for foreign filmmakers, a staging for the authorities, needing to hear what they want to hear. A parallel reality where the Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers does not exist.”
“It gives the impression that no one believes this and that they have only put on the Festival to say that they did not suspend it,” Anthony considers. For the Latin American journalist, the immersion in the event has left a deep and sad impression. “The filmmakers are fed up and very upset. I talked to some who told me that they were not even going to go to the closing because they already knew what it was going to be: official speeches ensuring that everything went very well, when the truth is that the Festival is broken, completely broken.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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“The optimists, the group in which we revolutionaries belong, believe that the important thing is to have conquered the test,” said the president, without specifying what that supposed victory is.
Miguel Díaz-Canel, this Friday, at the closing of the Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. / Estudios Revolución
14ymedio, Havana, 14 December 2024 — In response to Cuba being kept on the US list of countries sponsoring terrorism for another year, President Miguel Díaz-Canel has called for a “march of the fighting people” on December 20. In his speech this Friday, on the second and final day of the Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (PCC) – a speech described by the official press as “rich in reasons, enlightening on possible paths, with a scope that generates emotions” – the president lashed out against the “imperial blockade” and “the unjust inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries supposedly sponsoring terrorism.”
Before reaching that point, however, the speech began vaguely. “Another tremendous year is about to end. The pessimists will say that it could not have been worse. The optimists, the group in which we revolutionaries are militant, believe that the important thing is to have overcome the test. And the lessons it leaves us,” said Díaz-Canel, without specifying what this supposed victory continue reading
consists of when, at the same time, the Plenary session of the PCC recognized the “complex moment” that the Island is experiencing.
“We will overcome the current difficulties with creativity”
The president also said that the “most recent electoral result in the United States,” which gives Donald Trump a second presidency, “did not surprise us, just as we are not surprised by the euphoric dance of the haters, desperate to celebrate the end of the Revolution that they have not been able to defeat.”
His forceful words, however, barely concealed his usual voluntarism*: “We will overcome the current difficulties with creativity, by strengthening development programs based on talent, innovation, work and creative resistance.”
The concept of the “march of the fighting people” is the work of Fidel Castro, who used it for the first time in 1980 to name the pro-government demonstrations against the Cubans who stormed the Peruvian Embassy in April of that year and whose action gave rise to the Mariel exodus [also known as the Mariel Boatlift].
Those demonstrations became a sadly famous chapter in recent history on the island because they included aggressive slogans such as “Get rid of the scum!” and the derogatory use of the term “worm” to describe those who wanted to emigrate to the United States. Those days were also marked by physical violence and acts of repudiation organized in schools and workplaces against those who declared their intention to leave the country.
According to EcuRed, more than a million Cubans participated in those demonstrations, a figure that the regime has not been able to attract with its calls for a long time, among a population increasingly diminished by apathy, discontent and unstoppable migration.
*Translator’s note: The principle of relying on voluntary action (used especially with reference to the involvement of voluntary organizations in social welfare) – Oxford Dictionary
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He was serving a 14-year sentence for “sabotage and public disorder”
Gerardo Díaz Alonso, imprisoned for 11J, with his wife and one of his children / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 18 October 2024 — Political prisoner Gerardo Díaz Alonso, 35, who was serving a 14-year sentence for participating in the anti-government protests of 11 July 2021 (’11J’) in Cuba, died this Thursday in the Canaleta high-security prison in Matanzas. The cause of death was a heart attack, according to activist Aylín Sardiña Fernández posting on Facebook.
Díaz Alonso was tried for “sabotage and public disorder” after joining the protests in Cárdenas. Since then, “marked” in the eyes of the regime, the young man has experienced one injustice after another. On the day of his arrest, he was beaten into a patrol car and spent several days incommunicado, in a state of forced disappearance.
The trial was held in December 2021, but he received his sentence on 29 January 2022 without the knowledge of his family, who did not find out about the sanction until the following February 3rd, which prevented him from appealing. “Because it was from the military prosecutor’s office, we had only five days,” his wife, Mercedes Sánchez, explained to 14ymedio, adding that the papers arrived late and they were not even informed of the sanction by phone. Eleven other people were sentenced long with him.
On the day of his arrest, he was beaten into a patrol car and was held incommunicado for several days, in a situation of forced disappearance.
The father of two young children, Díaz Alonso entered prison with a kidney condition, which worsened after he went on a hunger strike to protest his sentence. At the time, his partner told this newspaper that she feared that her husband’s body “would not continue reading
react very well.”
As soon as he arrived in prison, he was placed in a punishment cell, from which he did not leave until his strike made the authorities nervous. After he was released from confinement, he was taken to an infirmary because his health had worsened. His mother went to visit him during this period. “He became very ill” when she saw him, said Mercedes Sánchez, who also visited the prison at the time: “He was thin, his face had no color and he was moving sideways,” was her description at the time.
Various independent media outlets and organizations have reported on the conditions in which prisoners live on the island. One of them was Cubalex, which last September accused the authorities of “arbitrarily and discretionarily using confinement in punishment cells, and exceeding the time stipulated in their own norms for this practice.” The prisoners suffer “cruel and inhuman treatment.”
In its report, the NGO said that during the first half of this year, at least 26 people died in the island’s prisons – four per month, on average – although the scarce official data forces us to consider that the number is barely a “significant underreporting of the real numbers,” according to the same report. Gerardo Díaz Alonso was added to that list this October, without the authorities having offered any explanation for his death.
During the first half of this year, at least 26 people died in the island’s prisons, four each month, on average.
The extreme conditions in Cuban prisons have also led more than one inmate to commit suicide. This is the case of Yosandri Mulet Almarales, who was also imprisoned for protesting on 11 July 2021, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sedition. He died in the Julio Trigo hospital in Havana, where he was admitted on August 22 after jumping into the void at the Calabazar Bridge during a parade. In June 2022, he had also tried to take his own life, reported the Cuban Prison Documentation Center. Mulet Almarales was barely 38 years old.
The same organization reported in early September that at least a dozen Cuban political prisoners were at risk of suicide. In another report, it documented three “events of suicidal ideation,” three self-harm incidents, and six attempts to take their own lives among 10 Cuban political prisoners (seven men and three women), since January 1, 2024.
There are a total of 1,113 political prisoners in Cuba, according to the latest count by Prisoners Defenders published on Thursday, which records 62 people incarcerated who “suffer from clinically diagnosed mental health disorders.”
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According to the State, producers have accumulated a debt of more than 10 million liters
The new prices for each liter of surplus milk for producers came into effect on March 1, rising from the 20 pesos previously paid to the current 38. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Madrid, 15 October 2024 — Acopio, Cuba’s State Procurement and Distribution Agency, is collecting barely 60,000 litres of milk a day in the province of Villa Clara, 40% of what they collected last year, when the average was 150,000. At this point, the State says that farmers have accumulated a debt of more than 10 million litres, an amount that, they say, is increasing. The result, they lament, is that “for the first time in history in the month of October the entire demand for ‘special’ diets — for children, sick people and seniors — cannot be met.”
The data was released by official journalist Jesús Álvarez López, reporter for the provincial radio station CMHW, in an opinion article published this Monday, in which he describes producers and those who participate in the informal market – that is, the majority of the population – as “merchants of disorder” for continuing to seek profit by buying and selling milk on the sly, despite the fact that since March Acopio has been paying more per liter.
In addition, he also accuses the authorities of being “technocrats who don’t even take the time to listen and think, and who want to solve everything with money,” but who don’t know how to properly manage payments or breaches of contract. In this regard, he specifically points to banking, which is responsible, according to the conclusions that Álvarez draws from the comments he hears on the street. continue reading
“If the magnetic cards had reached each producer with the same speed as our elderly retirees received them, no producer would be owed a penny”
“If the magnetic cards had reached each producer with the same speed as our old retirees, who were not even asked if they had cell phones, no producer would be owed a penny. The money would be on their card, even if they were suffering the same hardships that we all suffer when they demand cash for what we need to buy,” he complains.
The new prices for each liter of surplus milk for producers came into effect on March 1st, rising from the 20 pesos previously paid to the current 38 pesos. At that time, Alvarez had already warned that the measure could be a failure. “Will the price increase prevent the diversion of milk? Life will convince much better than my words of warning after so much time,” he said, going on to argue that if the cost per liter continued to rise on the informal market and was paid, this would mean that “around 6 billion pesos would go on the street,” with “no other effect for consumers than continuing to increase inflation.”
Now, the journalist recalls having drawn attention to the fact that paying more money was not the answer. “Today we are worse off,” he says. And he adds: “If the State decided to pay 100 pesos per liter, the ’merchants of disorder’ would pay more and in cash.”
Álvarez says that “it is unethical to justify the diversion of milk or its derivatives to obtain cash, while putting food intended for children and the sick at risk,” but he does not exempt the authorities from responsibility. He claims that the “municipal milk groups do not work” and therefore do not provide the necessary solutions, while state companies do not even know what is happening.
“And the one who siphons off the milk is just as guilty as the one who doesn’t demand what is his,” he concludes.
The deficiencies of the collection system are in the news every day. A little over a week ago, several cattle ranchers from Sancti Spíritus reported to this newspaper the constant non-payments by the State due to lack of cash. Without paper money, they said, they refuse to fulfill their commitments with official companies.
“I’ve been selling milk on my own for a couple of weeks now. I didn’t make any money selling it to the state anyway because the payment is bad. That same liter of milk that I deliver after fulfilling my commitment, for which I only get paid 38 pesos, I sell on the street for 120,” a rancher told 14ymedio.
Most of the milk contracted by the State is distributed through the rationed market for children under seven years of age and people on medical diets, in addition to reserving a portion – when possible – for senior citizens’ canteens and child care centers.
In Villa Clara itself, as reported by this newspaper on Saturday , milk has begun to be transported in refrigerated tanker trucks stored in warehouses, also air-conditioned, to discourage farmers from selling it illegally. The guajiros occasionally attributed their breaches of contract – and the diversion of the product to the informal market – to the poor conditions of the State for preserving milk, but with this new method there is no longer an excuse.
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Instead of weapons, the UIM is dedicated to making mattresses and lounge chairs for tourists, and medical supplies.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel visits one of the factories of the business group. / Estudios Revolución
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 6 October 2024 — The Cuban Armed Forces control four business groups that are rarely mentioned in the official press. These are Geocuba – the best known – the Construction Union, the Agricultural Union and the Industrial Union. The latter, after the recent death of General Juan Cervantes Tablada – its director for several years – was said to be in charge of ensuring the renewal of Cuban weapons, one of the best kept secrets of the regime.
More eloquent about the work of the Military Industry Union (UIM), but without providing too many details, the Armed Forces website says that its mission is the “repair, manufacture, modernization and development of weapons and military technology, as well as other productions and services for the FAR (Revolutionary Armed Forces) and the economy.” It was founded on December 23, 1988 and its headquarters are on Santa Ana Street, between Loma and Bella Vista, in the Havana municipality of Plaza. Its website is disabled.
A recent issue of the magazine Verde Olivo offers more details about the Union, created with Soviet money through arms “development projects” agreed to with the Kremlin. A large part of its current staff has worked there since the 1980s, when the entity was dedicated to the “marketing of articles for military use”; it is not known with which countries or institutions.
In archival images released earlier this year by Cuban Television, Union technicians were shown repairing rockets and military vehicles, “in preparation for the Special Period that was already looming” and the fall of Soviet patronage in the 1990s.
Since then – and under the command of Cervantes Tablada – the Union seems to have changed its task, at least in the public eye, and although it claims to maintain “the combat readiness of the FAR war material,” it is continue reading
dedicated to the manufacture of other equipment. It now defines itself as a “scientific-technological park,” whose leadership is unknown, although years ago they had a general coordinator, First Colonel Ángel Franco Vélez .
In images released by Cuban Television, Union technicians were shown repairing rockets and military vehicles.
Its main current client is Gaviota, the Army hotelier, to which the Union supplies spare parts and equipment. From manufacturing and repairing weapons, the company went on to make doorknobs, metal containers and cisterns, as well as doors, tiles, aluminium carpentry elements, furniture, mattresses, lounge chairs, hygiene products, floor tiles and light bulbs.
They have a “software and electronics” program dedicated primarily to virtual game simulators – which are used for military training – and a series of electronic products intended for medicine. For this, they have the Grito de Baire Research, Development and Production Center, which manufactured 255 artificial respirators during the coronavirus pandemic and is now manufacturing hip prostheses.
Today, the Union manages a Vestibular Studies System, responsible for checking all pilots, divers and parachutists in Cuba. They also created an Autonomic Nervous System Explorer, which “assesses the risk of sudden death, cardiac ischemia and syncope.”
The Union, however, avoids talking about its role in the training of Cuban soldiers, who are trained in simulators of national manufacture. An unusual report on the military schools in Las Tunas, broadcast on Cuban Television in mid-September, confirmed that the basic training of the Army’s tankers is done in shooting and driving simulators designed by the Union.
Major Eider Cardet explained that the “block of simulators” under his command had several modalities used by the Cuban Army: tank, infantry and BMP-1 firing (Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty, the name the Soviets gave to combat vehicles lighter than a tank). BMP-1 ammunition is “costly for the country,” the report said, so the simulators are indispensable.
Vagueness in its public reports is a hallmark of the Military Industry Union. Gone are the days when the entity boasted of its two most memorable contributions to weaponry: the Mambí-1 AMR rifles and the Alejandro, a sniper rifle. The Mambí, a 2.10-meter, 14-kilogram weapon, is a semi-automatic rifle that the Cuban military used during the Angolan war in the 1980s, especially against land vehicles.
As for the Alejandro, inspired by the Soviet Dragunov and named in homage to Fidel (Alejandro) Castro – who used a similar weapon, with a telescopic sight, to avoid combat and not risk his life, during his stay in the Sierra Maestra – it weighs five kilograms and measures 1.12 meters.
Vagueness in its public reports is a characteristic of the Military Industry Union
In an attempt to shed light on the Union’s current work, the General Military Forum – a space for discussion on armaments in with registered Cuban commentators – dedicated one of its spaces to the Cuban industry. The first ideas raised had to do with the opacity of the institution, since the official sites that describe its work are blocked or corrupted.
One user claimed that the Union had “a series of factories for the production of light infantry weapons, ammunition, mines and other means of various kinds,” a fact confirmed by Verde Olivo. Another pointed out its alleged links with the Spanish company Ingemat, dedicated to industrial automotives, although the company’s website does not state that it has relations with the Cuban Army.
With the rapprochement of the Cuban Armed Forces with Russia and Belarus – there have been frequent exchanges between senior officials from the three countries in recent months – new doors are opening for the Military Industry Union. Cervantes Tablada himself had studied engineering in the Soviet Union and in the island’s arsenals, recently filmed on Russian television, there are quite a few pieces of equipment from the former power.
When Miguel Díaz-Canel, escorted by Cervantes Tablada, visited the Union facilities at the end of 2023, the military man told him that he had 1,300 people, including military and civilians. Astonished, the president said that they were an example for the “socialist company,” because they produced more than any state-owned company. The FAR minister, Álvaro López Miera, approved the comment, but added: “Without neglecting defense for a second.”
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14ymedio, Havana, 17 December 2024 — Raidel Martínez has become the crown jewel for the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB). From his recently obtained contract for $32,500,000 with the Yomiuri Giants for four seasons in the Japanese Professional Baseball League, the state coffers will collect $6,500,000, more than $1,600,000 per season.
