Translating Cuba – Page 131 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

With the Exemption of Tariffs on Agricultural Inputs, the Cuban Government Continues Its Patchwork Policy

The private sector does not have the necessary foreign currency to import fertilizers or seeds

The new resolutions aim to make some products cheaper, such as fertilizers and other inputs necessary for cultivation / Granma

14ymedio, Madrid, 22 November 2024 — The Government has approved two resolutions with which it intends to stimulate food production through discounts and tax exemptions on the import of raw materials and inputs. The measures, which affect both the private and state sectors, comes “at a very necessary time, due to serious agricultural effects due to recent weather events,” said the Minister of Finance and Prices, Vladimir Regueiro Ale.

It is actually one more step in the direction taken in December 2023, which was highly criticized by several experts for placing the emphasis on tariffs without taking into account the inability of private companies to obtain the necessary foreign currency to finance imports. “Cuba’s agricultural crisis will not be solved by any tariff. In the short term, it requires raw materials and intermediate goods that should be imported mainly by the State,” economist Pedro Monreal wrote at the time.

The minister’s comments to justify the new measures indicate that the Government has not taken the advice of independent experts into account. The official stressed that the decision will not only reduce import costs but will also provide the “possibility of establishing partnerships to recover production lines” and will have a “favorable impact on prices with an increase in supply, especially food.” However, there is a deadline: December 31, 2025, since the measures are “subject to the study of their real impact.”

Resolution 329 automatically exempts 191 products from the payment of import tariffs, detailed in an appendix. These are mainly pesticides, fertilizers, raw materials and inputs from production processes. Among them are grain seeds of all kinds, veterinary medicines for ranchers, continue reading

chemical and mineral fertilizers, and insecticides.

Resolution 329 automatically exempts 191 products from import tariffs, detailed in an appendix

In addition, there is a multitude of tools for the field – shovels, saws, wire – and tires for agricultural machinery, and there is a large collection of items for packaging and distribution ranging from bags to cardboard, paper and pallets.

In the long list, some products for food preparation such as oils of different types and flours stand out. At the end of 2023, when the Government announced that 2024 national manufacturing would be encouraged with tariff subsidies of 50% for the import of intermediate products and 50% penalties for finished products, the ministers themselves admitted the complexity of establishing some limits. For example, flour, which could be “final” if sold to the consumer, could be “intermediate” if used in the production of breads and pastries.

Also striking is the inclusion of three groups linked to the sugar sector, such as cane and beet sugar and chemically pure sucrose in a solid state; other sugars, syrups and honey substitutes; and molasses from the extraction or refining of sugar. This section contains 20 by-products and reveals, on one hand, the dependence of Cubans on a substance the World Health Organization considers “unnecessary from a nutritional point of view” and harmful to health, in particular because of its close link to obesity and type 2 diabetes.

It also reveals what has been evident for a long time. Cuba urgently needs to import the product due to the destruction of its previously powerful sugar industry. In 2023, for the first time, more money was allocated to buying sugar abroad than was obtained by selling it.

According to Regueiro Ale, there are more than 3,000 tariff items, and for the moment, these 191 are automatically exempt, although “the economic actor receiving the goods” must present a quarterly report with the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the use of its profit, in which it must include the price reduction achieved. Ministry and Customs will have the responsibility of evaluating the result of the exemption.

“The economic actor receiving the goods” must present a quarterly report with the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the use of its profit, in which it must include the price reduction achieved”

Resolution 328, for its part, is complementary to the one described above, since it provides for a 50% bonus for items that, also intended for the production of food and agriculture, do not appear in the previous list, which means that the reduction of the tax rate is not automatic but must be requested.

In this case, the documents detailed in the resolution must be sent, which essentially include the identification and billing data of the company, the international sales contract, the quantity of merchandise, its value and the justification for what the cargo is intended for, among others. They will be reviewed and must be sent within 15 days, but the time to correct errors is also extended. In case any document is missing, the applicant is required – interrupting the processing time – to send what is needed within seven days.

Minister Regueiro Ale explained that this resolution aims to improve the previous rule, approved in January, by which tariffs were reduced by 50% on intermediate products, but without documentation and deadline specifications. To date, “the tax sacrifice,” he said, “amounts to about 25 million pesos, especially among non-state economic actors, most of whom have requested this permission.”

The automatic exemption of almost 200 by-products will allow, on the other hand, relieving the bureaucratic burden on both parties and reduce import times. However, the Government is still not considering the possibility of freely trading with the outside world without a state intermediary, one of the main demands of the sector.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Students Will Work for Energy and Mines for Minimum Wage and Without Guarantees of Employment

Although the project is “initially” restricted to the seven careers that are related to the Ministry, it is possible that it will extend to other faculties

Although the State newspaper Granma does not mention it, Cuban universities have been sending students to work for years, at the expense of their own free time and regardless of conditions / Cujae

14ymedio, Havana, 21 November 2024 — Students of seven technical careers in several Cuban universities will be sent – it is not clear whether en masse or voluntarily – to work in the energy-mining sector while they study. What began as an emergency measure to remedy the personnel crisis will become a common practice in Cuba, but with almost no benefits: they will earn the minimum, and nothing guarantees that they can keep their jobs after graduation.

On Tuesday, the State newspaper Granma praised the “new model of work-based training,” an idea that it attributes to Fidel Castro at a distant date – 1968 – which predicts success for the 44 companies where students will work. Juan Ruiz, general director of Mining of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, reported that third-year students from Electrical, Mechanical, Automatic, Chemical Engineering, Geology, Mines and Metallurgical will be called to respond “to the needs of the sector and the country.”

The model is already practiced by the Ministry of Public Health with university hospitals, Ruiz explained, and has begun to be implemented in the universities of Pinar del Río, Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Villa Clara, Camagüey, Granma, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba. Although the project is “initially” restricted to the seven careers that are “linked to the Ministry,” it is possible that it will extend to other faculties, the manager said. continue reading

The model is already practiced by the Ministry of Public Health with university hospitals, Ruiz explained

“Only third- and fourth-year students will be considered, since it is at these levels that they can begin to apply the knowledge acquired in a real environment. For first- and second-year students, the focus will be on the acquisition of fundamental knowledge such as chemistry, physics and mathematics,” he said.

According to Ruiz, some 84 entities were evaluated before implementing the measure, but only half met the requirements. Of these, 19 are electrical institutions; 11 are in oil; seven in mining; five in nickel; one is a salt mine; and the Institute of Geology and Paleontology is included. “Quality is not negotiable,” he said, alluding to the possibility that – due to inexperience – young people might do a bad job.

They will earn a minimum wage; they will be part of the staff as long as the “model” lasts; they will be paid for “fundamental specific projects”; but the Ministry cannot – according to Ruiz – guarantee that they will have a permanent position when they finish their training. The manager took no responsibility for the granting of places, saying that it was up to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, “depending on the country’s priorities, although in some cases changes can be made legally.

Other education officials – the vice-rectors of the Central University of Las Villas (UCLV) and the Technological University of Havana (Cujae) – said that the measure implies a correction of “historical deficiencies” in the articulation of teaching and work in Cuba. “We want students to be more connected with the work environment,” they explained.

“We want students to be more connected with the work environment”

Although Granma does not mention it, Cuban universities have been sending students to work for years – at the expense of their own free time and without basic conditions of transport and food – in centers that need workers. Under the concept of “pre-professional practice,” the Ministry of Higher Education sends pre-university and first-year technical school students to work.

Jorge, a graduate of English Language at UCLV, remembers that every day he and his classmates had to go to the neighboring Lázaro Cárdenas polytechnic school to teach all kinds of subjects, as decided by the management of the center. “Lázaro Cárdenas is one of the worst schools in Santa Clara. No one wants to teach there, and they are always looking for teachers because no one lasts long,” he explains.

From his faculty to the polytechnic he had to walk almost half a mile along the edge of the road, which has a highly dangerous curve for pedestrians. “Trucks and buses go around at full speed, but it’s the only way to get to school.” Originally a Salesian school and expropriated by Castro, the current Lázaro Cárdenas school is a massive building in Girón style.*

“The worst part is not the students, who are stigmatized even in their own families for not having been able to opt for the pre-university, but the faculty and managers,” says Jorge. Those who had been there for several years looked “menacingly” at the “intruders,” because they had to give a report on their experience at the end of the semester.

“Everyone was dumped on the Lázaro Cárdenas. Neither those who went to the Ipvce (the pre-university of sciences) nor those who had to attend other pre-universities in Santa Clara complained in that way,” he explains. In the long run, the collaboration between the two institutions cooled, and those who continued going could have the luxury of attending the first weeks and then drifting out of the classroom. “It was enough to return in the final stretch of the course,” he says. “From the ’work-based training models’ there is no longer anyone who tells stories to Cuban students.”

*Unlike the ornamental style preceding the Revolution, this modern “brutalist” apartment complex was built in 1967 to house the workers of the Girón Bus plant.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Journalist José Gabriel Barrenechea Is Transferred to a Prison in Santa Clara

His admission to La Pendiente prison “represents a serious risk to his life,” warns an NGO

Independent journalist José Gabriel Barrenechea / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 20 November 2024 — Independent journalist José Gabriel Barrenechea was transferred on Monday to La Pendiente prison, in Santa Clara. The 14ymedio collaborator had been arrested on November 8 for his alleged participation in the popular protests that took place a day earlier, in the municipality of Encrucijada, Villa Clara, after more than 48 hours without electricity.

The penitentiary center where Barrenechea is currently located is “known for its conditions of extreme overcrowding and for housing prisoners of all kinds,” warns the Denunciation Center of the Foundation for Pan American Democracy (FDP). His stay in La Pendiente “represents a serious risk to his life,” the entity emphasizes in a statement.

Barrenechea was transferred from the Santa Clara Police Instruction Unit where he was being interrogated for allegedly having joined the demonstrations of November 7 in Encrucijada, the Villa Clara community where he lives. According to the legal organization Cubalex, three days after his arrest his family had no news about his situation.

While in the Unit, the reporter remained incommunicado. “Now, in La Pendiente, he is surrounded by common prisoners, some of whom are used by the regime to carry out dirty work in exchange for benefits such as passes, visits or changes in their sentences,” FDP emphasizes. “In this hostile environment, the physical integrity and life of Barrenechea are in imminent danger.” continue reading

This week a letter signed by more than 200 journalists, activists, intellectuals and academics was released demanding his immediate release. The letter emphasized that the reporter was “arrested for political reasons,” which constitutes a “frank violation of his rights.”

The text, which was signed by journalists Boris González Arenas, Camila Acosta Rodríguez and Yoe Suárez; playwright Luis Enrique Valdés Duarte; the coordinator of the Patmos Institute, Mario Félix Lleonart; analyst Juan Antonio Blanco; political scientist Armando Chaguaceda and academic Alina Bárbara López, among others, exposes the “concern for the news related” to Barrenechea’s lack of legal defense.

The signatories of the document join in a unanimous statement: “We demand the immediate release of the writer and activist and, by extension, of all political prisoners in Cuba.”

Barrenechea has been in the crosshairs of the Cuban political police for years for his collaborations with several independent media such as Árbol Invertido, Cuba Encuentro and 14ymedio. Since 2019 he has been subject to harassment and persecution by the regime, which has “regulated” him, preventing him from leaving the country.

His arrest is part of a series of arrests linked to the protests that took place after the passage of Hurricane Rafael and the consequent new collapse of the national electricity system. The organization Justicia 11J recorded the arrest of at least 23 people in Cuba since last October 18, when the national electricity system collapsed for the first time this year. Since that day, there have been 68 protests.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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China Follows in Russia’s Footsteps and ‘Deploys’ an Aid Package for Cuba After the Hurricanes

Xi Jinping is “very concerned” about the situation and “is paying a lot of attention” to the Island, according to the State newspaper Granma

Liu Jufeng, vice president of China’s National Agency for International Development Cooperation, with Díaz-Canel / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, 16 November 2024 — China continues to support the Cuban regime and is aware of the country’s precarious situation after the passage of two hurricanes. According to the official press, a new aid package will arrive from Beijing. The order comes from Xi Jinping himself, who is “very concerned” about the panorama and “is paying a lot of attention” to what is happening on the Island.

Liu Jufeng, vice president of China’s National Agency for International Cooperation for Development, traveled to Havana expressly to offer Xi’s “greeting” to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and to give the news of his economic support. However, neither the Chinese nor the Cuban side has said a word about the “round of measures” to benefit the country or the amount of the “emergency aid.”

“President Xi Jinping has a very complex internal and external agenda, but he closely follows Sino-Cuban cooperation. At the recent BRICS summit in Kazan, he talked to Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla,” Liu told Díaz-Canel. The president was grateful that Beijing gave the regime “very concrete solutions with relatively short deadlines,” especially in the food and energy area. continue reading

With each Chinese government delegation, says the State newspaper Granma, comes a legion of experts to evaluate the country’s situation

With each Chinese government delegation, says the State newspaper Granma, comes a legion of experts to evaluate the country’s situation in several key sectors. The experts then return to China and document the “needs” of the Island, so that the Xi Government can invest in “cooperation.”

In addition to Díaz-Canel, Lou met with Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas, who is the lead representative in economic relations with Russia, China and the Arab countries; the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy; the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga; and Foreign Ministry staff.

Last month, an article in Financial Times reported that economic relations between Cuba and China are apparently stagnant, but the policies between are steadfast. The aid that Beijing announced this Friday is part of the dynamic between the two countries, characterized by the delivery of “emergency” money and subsequent debts.

Currently, the British media reported, Cuba owes hundreds of millions of dollars to Chinese companies such as Huawei and Yutong.

Cuba owes Chinese companies like Huawei and Yutong hundreds of millions of dollars

A sign of Beijing’s distrust in its Caribbean ally is the cancellation, according to the Financial Times, of an import contract of 400,000 tons of sugar per year from the Island. The reason: the regime is unable to implement a reform of its market that allows it to live up to the production that China requires.

The media quoted a former professor of Economics at the University of Havana, who said that China’s investments in Cuba are almost non-existent and that “it’s more about large-scale trade and commercial credits.”

Debts are another characteristic aspect of the relationship. According to an investigation by Martí Noticias, in 2010 Beijing restructured Cuba’s debt – millions of dollars – and gave more credits to the Island because it had confidence in Raúl Castro’s “reforms”. In 2014, China granted interest-free loans to build a port in Santiago de Cuba and postponed the debt again.

That year, Xi Jinping visited Cuba and met not only Raúl Castro but also his brother Fidel, who would die two years later. In 2016, China activated a protocol to forgive Cuban debt. By that time, Beijing had made it a practice not to say how much Havana owed.

In 2019, Cuba became included in China’s plan to achieve international economic expansion. In 2022, Xi gave Díaz-Canel 100 million dollars in credits during the president’s trip to Beijing. The Chinese president then asked to help Cuba “regardless of the debt.” Last year another 100 million dollars were donated to the Island, and this year China has continued its “cooperation” agenda.

China and Russia have come to the rescue of Cuba after the passage of hurricanes Oscar and Rafael

China and Russia have come to the rescue of Cuba after the passage of hurricanes Oscar and Rafael. In addition to financial aid, both countries have sent senior officials to personally verify the situation.

In recent weeks, not only the Minister for Civil Protection, Emergencies and Elimination of Natural Disasters, Alexander Kurenkov, passed through Havana, but also an old acquaintance of the regime, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Dimitri Chernyshenko, who participated in a meeting in Havana of the Cuba-Russia Intergovernmental Commission for Trade Cooperation.

The message of both officials was the same: “By instructions of our President Vladimir Putin, Russia is willing to provide emergency aid to sister Cuba.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Yunaikis de la Caridad Linares, 11J Prisoner, Faces Isolation and Threats in Havana Prison

Yunaikis de la Caridad Linares Rodríguez / Cubalex

Cubalex, 14 November 2024 — Cubalex warns about the serious situation of Yunaikis de la Caridad Linares Rodríguez, political prisoner and protester of the Island-wide mass demonstrations on 11 July 2021 (’11J’), who is currently in solitary confinement in a punishment cell in the women’s prison El Guatao, in Havana.

Although a few months ago she was transferred to a less severe regime, the authorities are now threatening to return her to the most severe regime or even add a new case to her sentence, according to Maykel Osorbo’s official Facebook page.

Yunaikis faces serious health problems, including asthma and thyroid disorders, conditions that are severely affected by the harsh prison conditions. The lack of adequate care and the hostile prison environment put her physical and emotional health at risk.

Since her arrest, Yunaikis has been subjected to threats, beatings and psychological torture. In addition, the authorities have encouraged other prisoners to attack her, subjecting her to a constant environment of violence and intimidation. Denial of benefits and reprisals are systematic practices used in Cuba against persons imprisoned for political reasons.

Update on the situation of Yunaikis de la Caridad Linares Rodríguez

Yunaikis decided to go on strike on November 13 as a form of protest, demanding to be removed from the punishment cell where she is being held.

Prison authorities have responded by threatening to tighten her detention regime, which would prevent her from accessing the passes granted to visit her family. They have also threatened to add a new case to her sentence, increasing the pressure and risks to which she is subjected.

Her life is in grave danger due to constant harassment by the authorities, who have incited other inmates to attack her, creating an environment of violence and intimidation.

According to activist Anamely Ramos on Facebook , Yunaikis was allowed to make a call in which she announced that she had been taken out of the punishment cell yesterday and transferred to a more severe regime.

Translated by GH

A Wannabe of Science

For a long time science was conducted in the field notebook – with pencils and watercolours – as well as with the microscope.

One of the ’anthomedusae’ drawn by Ernst Haeckel, which today illustrate the Polish writer Stanisław Lem’s books, published by Impedimenta / Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms in Nature)

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, 17 November 2024 – Salamanca. To draw an object is to understand it. I leave the house with Faber-Castell pencils, a case of Staedtler felt pens and a hard-backed notebook in my jacket pocket. The pencil line forms quickly and shakily. It’s cold. Hardship can determine style: disjointed, austere, or brief – all virtues which one would want to have also for writing. The world moves on quickly and one wants to keep something of it. Snails, spiders, branches, puddles, voices.

To categorise is to capture; to draw is to hunt. “Regrets: not having continued to draw”, wrote George Steiner, “with charcoal, pastels and ink, in order to illustrate some of my own books. The hand can speak truths and happinesses that language is incapable of articulating”.

For a long time science was conducted in the field notebook – with pencils and watercolours – as well as with the microscope. The German naturalist Ernst Haeckel, whose work is as electrifying as the books of Darwin or Humboldt, is the best example. Better known as an artist than as a zoologist, his prints of jellyfish, radiolarias and cephalopods still make you dizzy. They make you dizzy because they seem to be alive and moving beyond the page. continue reading

Better known as an artist than as a zoologist, his prints of jellyfish, radiolarias and cephalopods still make you dizzy

Haeckel called his subjects enigmas of the universe, wonders of life, artforms of nature. Tentacles, spirals, membranes, strange multicoloured clusters, translucent, viscous and retractable. He dreamt of defining a complete morphology of these organisms. After immersing himself off the beaches of Naples and Sicily and investigating the composition of the Mediterranean waters, he painted some 1,000 images. He moved from art to biology and from biology to theology. He claimed to have defined God as a gaseous vertebrate.

Art, science and writing have one necessity in common: imagination. The scientist Carlo Rovelli says that science is, above all else, a visionary activity, and as such it requires sensitivity. Severo Sarduy, however, warns that: “it is possible that, when confronted with science, a writer is never much more than a wannabe”.

Antonio Parra was, to put it like that, our Haeckel, the man who united science and imagination. Born in Portugal in 1739, he arrived in Cuba as part of an infantry regiment after the English had taken Havana. He settled, left the army, and married a creole girl. In 1787 he submitted for publication one (and perhaps the most celebrated) of the 300 Cuban books that still survive from the eighteenth century, and which someone has called ’our incunables’.

’A Description of Different Types of Natural History, Most of them Marine Life’, with 75 copper engraved plates – in colour in some editions – was the first ever scientific work written on the island. If the military engravings of Dominic Serres and Philip Orsbridge mark a new way of seeing Cuba, or at least Havana, then with his Book of Fishes we have a visual discovery of its nature. The eighteenth century, Lezama explains, “shows us the character of Cuba”.

Science was born on the island through thought, drawing and the desire for exploration. Parra doesn’t write a scientific work, but a catalogue, a guide for his cabinet of curiosities. What curiosities? “The multitude of remarkable works of nature that abound on the island of Cuba and in the seas that surround it – in the the three kingdoms of animal, vegetable and mineral – all inspired in me, from the very first moment I set foot there, a great desire to put together a collection”.

With a “remarkable respect” for his adoptive country, Parra, enraptured, describes the nature of the tropics

With a “remarkable respect” for his adoptive country, Parra, enraptured, describes the nature of the tropics. He preserved and varnished specimens of the creatures that interested him, like Haeckel, the most – fish and marine creatures. He was, he says, praised for this work by some of his friends and this gave him encouragement. After a year the collection had grown significantly, and, despite a “scarcity of engravers”, Parra got his son to illustrate the book. The boy posessed, says the father with some irony, “a somewhat superficial style of drawing”, but he was nevertheless up to the job. He may perhaps have had some help, because the 75 plates are not the work of a beginner.

This improvised naturalist explained all of this to no less than the King of Spain himself, to whom he sent various pieces from his collection. With little preamble, the creatures begin to line up: some of his descriptions are poetical, others are almost tender – one fish has “two little arms, from which come two fins, like hands”. Another “eats with some suspicion”. The devil fish has stilettos in the form of horns, “whose use we don’t yet understand”.

There are [amongst others] wreckfish, bonefish, swordfish, hawkshead turtles, loggerhead turtles, furry and toothy crabs, teleost fish, prickly prawns, the mother of all snails: a kind of beehive that engenders an infinite number of molluscs, and a worm that’s a nightmare worthy of the planet Solaris…

Parra ended up being ignored by the King, who denied him Spanish citizenship. He had collected tropical seeds for sowing in Madrid and Aranjuez and had become a celebrity in illustrious circles on the peninsular, but even in the eyes of his admirers he was little more than a mere empiricist, an improviser, a mere artisan of curiosities. No more, as Sarduy would say, than a wannabe.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Netflix Will Premier Two Episodes of Its Miniseries ‘One-Hundred Years of Solitude’ in Cuba

The streaming platform cannot be legally accessed on the island.

Actor Claudio Cataño as Colonel Aureliano Buendía in the Netflix adaptation of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” / Capture/Netflix

EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 20 November 2024 — The American streaming platform Netflix will premiere the first two episodes of its new miniseries “One Hundred Years of Solitude” in December in Cuba. The series is an adaptation of the well-known work of the same name by Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez.

The announcement was made at a press conference on Wednesday by organizers of the Havana International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, which is being held from December 5 to 15 in the Cuban capital, who spoke of it as a “world premiere.”

“The film adaptation of the Nobel Prize winner’s masterpiece will premiere on December 6 in the Cuban capital on the second day of the festival,” said Tania Delgado, festival director.

Netflix, which is not legally available on the island — pirated copies of its programming can be purchased through the so-called “weekly packet” — plans to release this miniseries worldwide on December 11. continue reading

“The film adaptation of the Nobel Prize winner’s masterpiece will premiere on December 6 in the Cuban capital on the second day of the festival”

García Márquez (1927-2014) was an artist with close ties to Cuba. A close friend of Fidel Castro, he maintained a house in Havana. He also founded the New Latin American Cinema Foundation, an organization based in Havana, and the International Film and Television School in San Antonio de los Baños.

The yearly festival is one of the most important events on Cuba’s cultural calendar. Its director announced that this year 110 films will be screened – 89 fewer than last year – from a total of 42 countries including Cuba, Mexico and Argentina.

The 45th edition of the festival will open with the Argentine film “More People Die on Sunday” and will include seminars such as one dedicated to the Cuban screenwriter and animator Juan Padrón (1947-2020).

Similarly, thirty original pieces of art from seventeen countries will compete in the poster competition. The awards ceremony will take place on December 15.

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José Daniel Ferrer Is Hospitalized After Being Assaulted in Prison, Say His Relatives

The opponent’s sister confirmed the news through a prisoner in Boniato, the Santiago de Cuba prison with a hospital to which he was allegedly transferred

José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), during an online event organized by Cuba Decide before his last admission to prison / Screen capture

14ymedio, Havana, November 21, 2024 — The activist and leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), José Daniel Ferrer, is admitted to the hospital of the Boniato prison, in Santiago de Cuba, after having suffered an attack in the Mar Verde prison, where he has been serving a sentence since the island-wide protests of 11 July 2021.

The opponent’s sister, Ana Belkis Ferrer, posted the news on her social networks this Wednesday, 24 hours after receiving the information, the source of which she did not specify.

“Yesterday afternoon, Tuesday, November 19, 2024, we were informed from Cuba that José Daniel Ferrer Garcia had been brutally beaten and taken out of the Mar Verde prison. Today, a political prisoner confined in Boniato prison told a relative that José Daniel has been admitted to the prison hospital,” explained Ferrer’s sister, also an activist.

The sister demanded that the leadership of the regime provide information about her brother’s condition. “We demand that Raúl Castro, Díaz-Canel and all the members of the criminal dictatorship give signs of Ferrer’s life immediately. We hold them responsible for his physical and psychological integrity, and we demand his freedom and that of all political prisoners,” she added.

Early this Thursday, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) released an identical statement, condemning what it has “been denouncing for years, along with other actors of civil society.” continue reading

The organization “deplores and condemns this act of violence, which shows the systematic dehumanization of conditions in Cuban prisons

The organization “deplores and condemns this act of violence, which shows the systematic dehumanization of conditions in Cuban prisons. Nothing in the prison regulations authorizes prison agents to inflict permanent physical punishment on those who, like José Daniel Ferrer, do not bow to injustice and humiliation for the exercise of their rights .”

The CTDC, which calls José Daniel Ferrer “a courageous pro-democratic fighter,” is forceful, “making it clear that the Cuban Government is solely responsible for the consequences, whatever they are” on the health of the opponent. The organization also sends its “support and solidarity” to the family of the UNPACU leader, as well as to his friends and members of that organization.

“The international community must urgently speak out against this abuse that many Cuban prisoners suffer,” the statement concludes.

The last time Ferrer’s family had news from Mar Verde prison was on November 4, when, for the umpteenth time, they were denied the right to visit him. They have been denied access for 20 consecutive months,
according to his sister.

They have been denied access to that right for 20 consecutive months, according to his sister

Ana Belkis Ferrer, who currently resides in the United States, told Martí Noticias that he is also denied the right to receive “phone calls.” The leader of UNPACU has been in prison since 2021, and his family was barely able to see him on 11 occasions, although nine marital visits were allowed, all under strict control.

“March 2023 was the last time he had visits and was able to talk to his wife and his son, Daniel José,” said his sister, adding that Ferrer suffers from mistreatment and isolation in a punishment cell with little lighting.

The Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio García Ibáñez, and the priest Camilo de la Paz, in charge of the Pastoral Penitentiary of the diocese, visited Ferrer on September 7, said his wife, Nelva Ortega Tamayo. She was glad at least that “after so long, a “person of God” was able to visit her husband and offer him “encouragement.”

That meeting revealed that his state of health was not entirely good, with heartburn, stomach pains and a “practically useless” arm. However, he was mentally “stable” and firm about remaining in prison despite the regime’s offers.

“They have maintained their harassment, repression and threats. They remind him that he could spend his whole life in prison if he doesn’t decide to leave the country, and he has made it very clear that he prefers to die inside rather than leave,” Ortega stressed. Her husband is considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and other organizations.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Homes Built by “Self-Effort” in Pilón Are the Most Affected After the October Earthquakes in Cuba

A group of architects from other provinces detected “vulnerabilities” in the buildings

Architects evaluate the crack in the wall of a house / Granma

14ymedio, Havana, 21 November 2024 — The two earthquakes of last October 10 in Granma province left some 8,170 damaged buildings. In Pilón, where the tremors were felt most strongly, the affected buildings are, for the most part, private homes in which the “specialists,” sent from several provinces in the country, have found “vulnerabilities,” which, they allege, resulted in “130 total collapses, more than 700 partial collapses and damage to thousands of roofs, walls and floors” in that municipality.

A team of “architects, designers, technicians and specialists in Housing and Construction, together with colleagues from other provinces, are going inch by inch through the affected areas.” They have found the cause of the collapses, explains the State newspaper Granma in an article published this Wednesday.

“We have been going house by house, and we have detected a group of violations that threatened the security of these homes in the face of this phenomenon. For example, we found many masonry houses that lacked connections between the wall and the columns or did not have the number of columns that the house needed, which resulted in the collapse of the walls or caused cracks in them,” says architect Javier Jorge Castro Cabrera.

Although he clarifies that “the magnitude of the earthquakes cannot be minimized, because they were strong events that would inevitably cause damage,” the professional suggests that, if the houses had been built correctly, the consequences would have been minor. The architect is right. The problem is that, when it comes to building homes, most of it is done by “self-effort,” the Regime’s euphemism for properties built by the owners themselves. continue reading

On the Island, building a house by “self-effort” translates into buying materials that are often not available

On the Island, building a house by “self-effort” translates into buying materials that are often not available or, if found, are usually adulterated. It also implies hiring bricklayers and individuals working on their own, without guarantees of being able to claim for a poorly executed job, and with only the sporadic assistance of the community architect. This is without taking into account how many years it can take from the moment the first blocks are placed to when the house is finished, which means that the oldest parts of the structure have spent a lot of time outdoors and can be weakened.

Even so, without alluding to the difficulties in building a house by oneself, the authorities insist on pointing out the defects that “increased the negative impact” of the quakes. According to architect Liana María Sosa Hernández, several houses had walls of blocks or bricks that were not properly anchored to the wooden structure of the building. “Those are two incompatible materials, and the columns have to be made to provide security,” she explained. For the same reason, many roofs, especially those made of fiber cement, ended up collapsing.

“The soil in seismic areas is also very important. The first thing that moves is the soil, and one of the recurring mistakes that we found is floors that lift or sink because the soil wasn’t compacted correctly during the construction process,” says Sosa.

The architect adds that, “in contrast,” many buildings “that were well executed” are still “intact.” Sosa does not exempt the State sector from construction irregularities: those that “did not have an adequate constructive sequence, because modifications were made or levels were added to them, also show effects.”

“Due to the magnitude of the earthquakes, damage has also been recorded in structures that were well executed (although to a lesser extent), which demonstrates the need to build according to the construction and earthquake codes,” says Granma.

Even the professionals were surprised by the impact of the quakes

In the end, even the professionals were surprised by the impact of the quakes. “It was really very shocking to get to places in Pilón where the earthquakes threw entire houses to the ground, and in others where they cracked walls, lifted floors, tore off plaster and split columns in two, and all in just a few seconds. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Castro Cabrera said.

Although revealing in some aspects, the article of the Communist Party’s official media focuses especially on the “solidarity” of the technicians and specialists who came to the municipality to assess the damage. Their presence, it says, “constitutes a significant incentive for the affected inhabitants.”

“We have been evaluating, diagnosing and calculating based on whether the Government can make decisions and use the most convenient resources for recovery. At the same time we have provided technical advice to residents, explaining the conditions of their homes as well as possible solutions, and people have thanked us for that,” continues Cabrera. He recognizes, however, that “people are still afraid and are worried about the continuing aftershocks.”

The architect maintains that “people are much calmer after we visit their homes and explain, for example, how they can secure their wall, because there are some that are cracked but don’t have to be knocked down. They can still use them, like the roofs that were blown off but can be disassembled and reused with metal beams from the State.”

If so far it had not been possible to evaluate the damage, it is because the province did not have the staff

Sosa had a similar perception of the residents’ fear. “Our presence in those affected places helped to reassure people, because some see the cracks in their homes and think they’re going to collapse, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be like that,” she said.

As for the victims, “the neighborhoods that are below sea level have been identified for future relocation to safer areas, while temporary facilities are being created for people who suffered total house collapses. Alternatives are being sought on the premises of state entities, to adapt them and use them as housing,” says the media.

However, regarding the reconstruction of homes, the authorities do not promise anything: “We plan to initially solve the minor affectations, which take fewer resources, and the others depending on what we receive.”

So far it has not been possible to evaluate and quantify the damage precisely, because the province did not have the staff to do so and had to wait for specialists to arrive from other areas, said Dailín Pérez Castillo, deputy director of Housing. In one sentence, the official summarizes, despite the press’s attempts to minimize the situation, the complex damage scenario after the earthquakes: “They didn’t give us enough people to quantify it.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Group of 154 Migrants, Including Cubans, Arrested for Illegally Entering the United States

The authorities said that six of them from Afghanistan are “of special interest”

A group of 154 immigrants were arrested in Texas last Sunday / X

14ymedio, Havana, November 20, 2024 — Despite the legal mechanisms to enter the United States (primarily humanitarian parole), the existing violence in the region and the tightening of laws in some border states, there are still numerous illegal crossings from Mexico. Last Sunday, for example, a group of 154 immigrants was captured in Texas, including Cubans, although it was not specified how many.

The Texas Department of Public Security (DPS) reported, through its spokesman, Chris Olivarez, that in addition to Cubans, there were “illegal immigrants from Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil, Nicaragua, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, who illegally crossed between the ports of entry in Eagle Pass.” The authorities pointed out that there were six immigrants of “special interest” from Afghanistan.

Although they can seek to enter the United States legally with humanitarian parole and the CBP One application, the search for a better life has forced many Cubans to take routes that put their lives at risk. At least 4,865 migrants have died on the southern border of the United States in the last 10 years, between November 3, 2014 and November 3, 2024, according to the open data portal of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Most drowned in the Rio Bravo or Grande, the route used by the latter group. continue reading

But to get to that point, in many cases those people must cross all of Mexico from its southern border. According to IOM, 2,247 migrant deaths have been recorded in that country, 250 of which were violent.

In addition to the Cubans, there were illegal immigrants from Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil, Nicaragua, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic

If undocumented immigrants manage to reach northern Mexico, they must face other difficulties. Some U.S. border states have implemented new restrictive laws against illegal migration. One of them is Proposal 314 in Arizona, approved in the November 5 elections , which grants local police departments the power to arrest undocumented immigrants and issue deportation orders. In Texas there is Senate Bill 4 (SB4), which makes it a state crime to cross the border illegally from Mexico.

Republican Governor Greg Abbott has been on a crusade against illegal migration for years. In 2021 he launched Operation Lone Star to stop illegal crossings. Since its implementation, 517,900 undocumented immigrants have been detained, and more than 46,000 arrests have been made on criminal charges, according to a statement by the Texas governor last August.

In the last four years, there has been an unprecedented migratory exodus in Cuba due to the serious economic crisis – which has a lacerating impact on the shortage of food, medicine and fuel – as well as the prolonged power cuts. This has caused the departure of more than 860,000 Cuban migrants to the United States in that period alone, according to data from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In fact, it is estimated that the population of Cuba fell by 18% between 2022 and 2023, mainly due to migration, according to a study by Cuban economist and demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos.

With the new Trump Administration in the United States, beginning January 20, 2025, it is expected that humanitarian parole will be eliminated. It currently benefits, in addition to Cubans, citizens of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti. The program has reduced migrant encounters outside official entry points by 98%, according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security. The extinction of the project would force a massive search by migrants for other, riskier ways to reach the United States.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: Resisting Is Not Winning, Changing Is Not Giving Up

Those in power in Cuba, in order to maintain their prerogatives, insist on the irrevocability of the system

As can be seen in the image accompanying this article, the trash has been collected and a disciplined citizen is preparing to leave his bag in some empty containers. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 20 November 2024 — The chaotic accumulation of garbage in Havana is explained by the official propaganda media as the result of a combination of factors that include social indiscipline and the effects of the American blockade*. Those who exercise a discordant criterion reduce the cause of this disaster to the inability of the Government to fulfill a task which it is obliged to do.

If those in power in Cuba were to acknowledge their inability to resolve the problem, they might be forced to resign from their posts so that more capable people could take over.

Since they are not willing to give up everything they enjoy in order to stay in power and since they lack the ability to keep the country’s cities clean, they then appeal to that revolutionary principle, which has become a working method and is expressed in a willful idea left as an inheritance from Fidel Castro: “We are going to do it at whatever price is necessary.”

As can be seen in the image accompanying this text, the trash has been collected and a disciplined citizen is preparing to leave his bag in some empty containers.

Obviously, the application of this Fidelista legacy extends to almost all spheres.

As there were no suitable vehicles to handle the containers (because of the blockade) and as the rubbish was overflowing into the street (because of the undisciplined), dump trucks and different types of excavators were called in, which, with their voracious buckets, designed for rougher work, continue reading

collected the waste and deposited it in the trucks. A simple job with immediate results.

The price to pay was the demolition of the curb protecting the flowerbed and the sidewalk on Estancia Street, next to the parking lot of the Ministry of Agriculture. The destruction was not caused in one go, but rather by virtue of the repeated occasions in which this method was applied, gradually producing the current deterioration.

That is the banal fact, but what underlies it is the will to face a difficulty at whatever price is necessary. To resist as long as possible in order not to give up.

Obviously, the application of this legacy of Fidelism extends to almost all spheres. In order not to give up, it was decided to use national oil to fuel the thermoelectric plants, with the consequent damage to the boilers that have not been able to resist the corrosive effect of the sulfur.

In order not to give in to the stampede of qualified personnel in schools, it was decided to train ’emerging teachers’ in a hurry, with the consequence of a drop in the quality of academic results.

In order not to give in to the enemy in the area of Healthcare, surgeons learn to suture with threads other than those recommended and the shortage of medicines is being addressed with homeopathy.

The price to pay was the demolition of the curb protecting the flowerbed and the sidewalk on Estancia Street, next to the parking lot of the Ministry of Agriculture. / 14ymedio

It would be overwhelming to go on with the examples that could be brought to light. In the construction of low-cost housing, in agriculture with the absence of fertilizers, herbicides, machinery or irrigation, in industry that subjects its production plans to the schedule of blackouts, in science subject to impaired internet connectivity, even in the defense of the country, where the proclaimed military invulnerability is undermined because pilots cannot train, radars are not turned on to save fuel and it is almost offensive to the suffering civilian population to spend resources on maneuvers.

Hopefully we won’t have to pay the price that seems necessary.

*Translator’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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Cuba and Argentina Have a Bitter Exchange of Disqualifications

The Cuenca Summit closes without an official declaration due to lack of consensus

Plenary session of the XXIX Ibero-American Summit this Friday, at the Pumapungo museum in Cuenca (Ecuador) / EFE/José Jácom

EFE (via 14ymedio), Cuenca (Ecuador), 16 November 2024 — The XXIX Ibero-American Summit, held in the Ecuadorian city of Cuenca, closed this Friday without an official statement due to the lack of consensus among the 19 participating countries, of the 22 that make up the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking group, in which there has also been no representation of Mexico, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

All countries, except Argentina, agreed to support a document that would include support for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), public policies on gender equity and the fight against climate change, among other issues, according to EFE sources.

Meanwhile, the Cuban delegation opposed approving a statement that did not contain an explicit condemnation of the United States embargo, as the representative of Argentina intended.

The representative of President Javier Milei, Ambassador Eduardo Acevedo, expressed the refusal of the Argentine Government to subscribe to these articles and, in return, proposed that the 19 countries sign a document that collected only the matters mutually agreed, something that Cuba and the rest of the countries opposed. continue reading

According to Acevedo, Argentina was willing to approve 71 of the 72 paragraphs of the (failed) Declaration of Cuenca and 17 of the 24 special communiqués.

The difficulties in signing a consensus document prolonged the discussions of the first day of the summit, when the foreign ministers met behind closed doors to prepare the document that the Heads of State and Government had to sign on the second and last day of the summit, reserved in principle only for the leaders of the countries, but which on this occasion had to be opened to lower-ranking representatives, due to the absence of practically all Latin American presidents except the host.

Finally, the conflicting positions of Argentina and Cuba prevented an official declaration by the 19 countries attending the summit.

Cuban representative Rodolfo Benítez accused Argentina of “coming to ruin the summit” while the Argentine Eduardo Acevedo denounced Cuba’s violations of human rights

Both delegations starred this Friday in a bitter exchange of disqualifications during the plenary session of the meeting.

Cuban representative Rodolfo Benítez accused Javier Milei’s Executive of “coming to ruin the summit,” while the Argentine ambassador, Eduardo Acevedo, denounced Cuba’s violations of human rights.

The Cuban representative accused Argentina of trying to make the summit fail by denying climate change and the rights of women and indigenous peoples, but warned that it failed by isolating itself from a declaration signed by the rest of the participants except the government of the ultra-liberal Milei.

Meanwhile, the Argentine delegate stated that his country “cannot and will not remain indifferent to violations of the rule of law and human rights. ” He pointed out that, “in the opinion of the Argentine Government, Cuba must restore democracy and respect the human rights and freedoms of its inhabitants.”

This harsh exchange occurred after the two countries clashed in the adoption of an official declaration to conclude this Ibero-American Summit, because Argentina opposed a consensus to advance in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, in terms of gender equity and the fight against climate change, among other issues, according to EFE sources.

Meanwhile, the Cuban delegation opposed approving a statement that did not contain a condemnation of the United States embargo on the Island.

“They did everything possible to prevent pronouncements” in favor of the aforementioned proposals, denounced the Cuban representative, who attributed to the Argentine delegation the use of “hate speech” and an “absolute submission to Washington in defending the blockade against Cuba.”

Acevedo wondered what actions the Ibero-American community is taking against the serious human rights violations in Cuba

However, according to Rodolfo Benítez, Argentina ended up failing, because “they have not received the support of anyone,” in reference to its exclusion from the joint statement that replaces the official statement and “shows the historical positions of the Ibero-American nations.”

“Ladran, Sancho, sign so we can get going,” Acevedo said to the Cuban delegation in his reply during the altercation in the plenary session of the summit. The ambassador also replied that Argentina was willing to approve 71 of the 72 paragraphs of the (failed) Cuenca Declaration and 17 of the 24 special communiqués.

“The real reason why Cuba is carrying out this new attack has to do with the underlying situation that my delegation mentioned,” he said, in reference to the first intervention of the Argentine representative before the plenary, in which he was very critical of the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

In that first statement, Acevedo wondered what actions the Ibero-American community, made up of 22 countries, is taking “against the serious violations of human rights in Cuba, which continue after more than half a century of authoritarian and repressive government.”

“How is it possible that we are silent in the face of this serious situation? How is it possible that we sit at the same table debating calendars and statements without mentioning the siege that continues in Nicaragua on the independent press, the deprivation of nationality of political opponents and the persecution of civil society organizations?”

“Our position is very clear: Cuba must restore democracy and respect human rights and individual freedoms”

“Our position is very clear: Cuba must restore democracy and respect human rights and individual freedoms. It is essential that it does not promote totalitarian policies in the region and that it focuses on improving the quality of life of its population through respect for freedom and providing well-being to all its citizens,” he emphasized.

To refute Acevedo’s arguments, the Cuban representative said: “Argentina can give consider Washington’s order to attack against Cuba fulfilled, but it stands alone.”

The Cuban delegate pointed out that the Ibero-American summit “cannot become hostage to isolationist positions that seek to set back the work achieved for more than three decades.”

“The future relevance and existence of this forum is put at risk,” said Benítez, who demanded that “the historical heritage we have built be respected, always overcoming our differences.”

And he went on to say that Argentina cannot give lessons in democracy to Cuba when the Milei government “mistreats retirees and opposes the rights of indigenous peoples and women.”

Benítez recalled that, during his speech in the plenary, he defended the historical claim of Argentine sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, because “the friendship of the Argentine and Cuban people – he stressed – surpasses any political ideology and the whims of any government.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban State Security Prevented Historian Miryorly García’s Monthly Protest for the Political Prisoners

“What’s the point of dedicating fuel to a patrol car and several policemen to repress me?”

Photo published by the activist in which you can see the patrol car hiding at the end of the street / Facebook / Miryorly García

14ymedio, Havana, November 19, 2024 — Art historian and political activist Miryorly García was arrested and questioned this Monday by State Security when she left her home on the 18th, the date chosen every month by Professor Alina Bárbara López Hernández to demonstrate for a peaceful transition in Cuba and the freedom of political prisoners. García, who lives in Havana and has protested in support of her colleague on previous occasions, was taken to a police station and returned home after being given a warning.

According to the activist, it is common for the regime to monitor her home on the 18th of each month to prevent her from going to a park with a bust of José Martí. “I looked out my door and didn’t see any motorcycles or agents watching my house from the doctor’s office. Since they sometimes no longer have enough material and human resources, I told myself that it was the 18th and there was no surveillance. I thought that this time I could leave my house,” she explains in a Facebook post denouncing the arrest.

However, after leaving her home, García was intercepted by two agents, one who identified himself as Fernando and a policewoman who did not give her name. “It didn’t occur to me to look a little more towards the corner, where the patrol was hiding behind the garbage containers,” explains the historian, who says that the police surveillance has become a “joke” for the neighbors, who wonder “how in a country with so many shortcomings, so many human and material resources are spent, especially the precious fuel, on watching and repressing me.”

The agent warned García that she could not leave her home, to which the activist replied that she was going to work. “They immediately signaled the patrol car. The woman kept telling me continue reading

to stop and another policewoman got out, and both told me to get in the car,” she says. “As usual, I didn’t resist and got in.”

The agent warned García that she could not leave her home, to which the activist replied that she was going to work

In the station to which García was transferred, “there was no electricity.” During the “dialogue,” the historian defended her right to leave her house. “I always spoke out loud so that everyone would hear – those who were outside the office too. I told them their work is shameful, illegal, arbitrary, reprehensible, and that those women dishonor the name of Mariana Grajales,” she added, referring to the police women’s brigades that bear that name.

The opponent explained that she had left her mother alone, for whom she had to prepare lunch. “The State Security agent pretended to be worried, like a blackmailing mafia, and asked me if my mother had her medicines. I replied that they were almost never in the pharmacy and that’s what they should be taking care of,” she says. Faced with the officer’s proposal to get her the medicine, García refused.

“I don’t want to be repressed with polite phrases. I don’t want any favors, even if it’s a medicine for my mother. I don’t accept that they use the patrol car as if it were a taxi and proposed to take me to the Galería where I work, wait for me and then take me home,” she says.

García, who reflected on the attitude of the political police officers, called on them to “also serve to protect citizens and feel proud of what they do. You are the ones who choose to be my repressors; don’t wait for me to bow my head or lower my voice,” she said.

“They are talking softly so that my neighbors don’t see them arrest me, hiding the patrol car behind the garbage containers, away from my house, fleeing from the photos. Yes, they are already aware of lying, hiding, masking themselves, pretending to have good intentions. That is, they are aware that what they do is wrong. But for many, like the ones I saw today, there is no shame for what they do. I know that one day, sooner rather than later, they will feel ashamed,” she said.

The detention lasted less than half an hour, and the activist was returned home

The detention lasted less than half an hour, and the activist was returned home. Hours later, García published another post on social networks from the park that she intended to reach in solidarity with Alina Bárbara López. “In a dirty park full of grass, I met Martí on November 18. There I sat with him to think about the point of dedicating the fuel of a patrol car and the work of several policemen and State Security agents to restrict me from leaving the house,” she posted.

On Monday, other activists and opponents who, like García, tried to support López’s peaceful protest for the freedom of political prisoners were also prevented from taking to the streets. The teacher explained on social networks that journalist Jorge Fernandez Era was also being watched by a patrol.

However, López, who on other occasions has been arrested, forced to stay at home and even faced a trial for her public statements of disagreement with the regime, was not disturbed this time. “Today I carried out the peaceful protest of every 18th in the Freedom Park without being disturbed. On this occasion I was accompanied by Mario Amílcar Quesada Zamora, a young man who, like so many compatriots, wishes for a civic and democratic transformation where we don’t spend our lives feeling hopeless. Madelyn Sardiñas Padrón in Camagüey and Mabel Melo in Artemisa were not harassed either,” she summarized.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Isla Libre Promotes ‘A Practical Guide Focused on Helping the Cuban People’ in the Search for Freedom

The authors call on citizens to “wake up and act” through peaceful civil resistance

The ’Manual’ is aimed at Cubans burdened by daily concerns / EFE

14ymedio, Havana, November 17, 2024 — The concept of a living book, which “grows and evolves” with time and collaborations, inspires the newly created Manual of the Isla Libre project. Created as a kind of civic encyclopedia, with the possibility of its readers sending new reflections and entries, the document aims to be “a practical guide focused on helping the Cuban people” in the peaceful search for freedom.

In its introduction, the Manual is aimed at Cubans burdened by daily worries, blackouts and shortages, and at young people and adolescents who “are already thinking about emigrating before finishing their studies.” Open to dialogue, the declared objective of Isla Libre is to “decipher why Cuba is in ruins, understand what we Cubans want and what to do to achieve it.”

On the other hand, the book is also addressed to the rulers and institutional actors of the regime, calling on them to reflect on their ethical situation, and to the police and the Armed Forces, who are not fulfilling their commitment to protect Cubans. “You see firsthand how poverty generates crime, how our children and adolescents form gangs and steal to be able to eat, how despair turns honest people into criminals,” it says.

“Wake up and act” are the two keys that, according to Isla Libre, mark the text. Without a personal effort for liberation, they add, it is useless to wait for international help. “How do we expect the world to reach out to us when year after year we show it the image of a people that apparently supports its oppressors?” they argue. continue reading

Cuba faces the consequences of 65 years of dictatorship, a word that Isla Libre uses without dissembling

Cuba faces the consequences of 65 years of dictatorship, a word that Isla Libre uses without dissembling to define the “invisible chain that binds the hands of the Cuban people.” A system, they say, that has been perfecting its control mechanism for decades, adapted to each historical stage, and that seeks – and has achieved – perpetuity in power. Making Cubans feel that being born on the Island is a “historical fatalism” is part of the machinery, the text points out: it restricts every attempt to challenge power.

Through concise tables and lists – the Manual does not waste time and underlines its interest in “getting to the point” of the Cuban panorama – the document presents the Cuban reality and its differences in political, legislative, social and economic terms, compared to any functional democracy. The contrast is summarized in one sentence: “While the modern world debates about what kind of progress is better, in Cuba we simply fight to survive.”

Solutions? Isla Libre proposes that they be radical: restoring individual freedoms, establishing the separation of powers, promoting an open economy and guaranteeing human rights. Aware that change will not come alone, the book proposes concrete strategies to achieve it despite the obstacles imposed by the dictatorship.

Several of these strategies are oriented not only to citizen resistance, but to another way of fighting the dictatorship: improving – as much as possible and with the multiple obstacles involved in living on the Island – the quality of life.

Against the inhospitable panorama that the Government has generated, living according to certain principles of optimization and savings is not playing into the hands of the authorities, they argue, but demonstrating that you can live with dignity even if the dictatorship insists on erasing it.

Isla Libre recommends the breeding of small animals – laying hens, especially – efficient cooking and if possible communally, the use of fuel, the use of homemade products, maintaining bottles of ice and recycling. In addition, they promote barter networks – both for products and skills – between trusted groups, useful information exchange groups and child and elder care systems.

They also advise the creation of community libraries – not subject to censorship by state institutions – and study circles. “We need to document and communicate reality to counter official propaganda and show the world what is really happening.”

To those who demand a more radical action against the regime, Isla Libre responds that its goal “is not to create martyrs”

To those who demand a more radical action against the regime, Isla Libre responds that its goal “is not to create martyrs, but to achieve the change that Cuba needs.” However, they recognize that violent repression continues to be – especially after the Island-wide protests of 11 July 2021 – a “systematic and brutal” response from the Government.

Faced with this type of scenario, the project provides a detailed manual of techniques and advice, which include – before a possible arrest – being prepared for the usual tactics of State Security, such as sleep deprivation, threats to the family, using “false confessions” of a friend or colleague, and temporary disorientation. In addition, they invite Cubans to “learn to detect” certain objects and people, such as a car parked in an unusual place or some unknown person who appears repeatedly.

They also warn about the misinformation that the regime spreads on social networks and the role that rumors plays in this process. They recommend the use of the Signal messaging application, “the most secure by default.”

“In this Cuba where scarcity wears us out and repression drowns our voices, there is a truth that we still do not understand well: real power has always been in our hands. Not in rifles or decrees, but in our ability to unite and act as one,” summarizes Isla Libre.

The project also includes a contact page, and its managers are interested in collaboration with writers, visual designers and digital specialists.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban President Diaz-Canel Joins the Denunciation of ‘Political Persecution’ Against Cristina F. Kirchner

According to the former president’s allies, the six-year sentence for corruption was riddled with “irregularities”

Former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez at the Patria Institute in Buenos Aires. / EFE

14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2024 — A group of long time allies, among them the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, signed a statement in support of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. In this statement, they denounced the political persecution, in the media and in the judicial system, that they maintained the ex-president was suffering, accused of corruption and sentenced to six years in jail besides being barred from ever holding a public office again

According to Prensa Latina, the signature of Díaz-Canel joins those of the presidents Xiomara Castro of Honduras and Luis Arce of Bolivia and those of former leaders Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Ernesto Samper of Colombia as well as Alvaro Garcia Linera, former vice-president of Bolivia among other officeholders

The allies established that the purpose of the conviction of ex-president Fernandez de Kirchner (2007-2015 ) was the elimination of her from any form of public life. “This action is part of a plan of systematic persecution, designed by the public sectors of the judicial system and the media, whose goal is to plant hateful and violent speech” they emphasized.

According to the document, from the beginning and during the process, the effort was riddled with procedural and legal irregularities that caused a serious impact on the constitutional guarantees granted to the ex president, especially her right to a defense during the trial. continue reading

The signatories maintained that with this case, the prosecution of Fernandez de Kirchner is moved forward “by the means of hegemonic communication media” and they cite “the attempted assassination on September 1, 2022” as its “most dramatic consequence.”

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in a meeting with the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel in 2019

The 2nd Federal Oral Court convicted Fernandez de Kirchner in December of 2022 for the crime of fraudulent administration of public funds with regard to the administration of highways . As part of the process, irregularities in the grants for 51 highway works to companies of the businessman Lazaro Baez during the administration of the late Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007) and that of his wife and successor Cristina Fernandez en the province of Santa Cruz, the political seat of “Kirchner-ism.”

The high tribunal, composed of Mariano Borinsky, Gustavo Hornos, and Diego Barroetaveña made the decision to sentence Cristina Elizabeth Fernandez de Kirchner to six years in prison and permanent barring from holding public office in considering her indictable for the crime of “Fraudulent administration to the detriment of public administration.”

In response to the sentencing the ex-president said: “when you are a woman, everything that they do to you is 20 times more difficult and if they punish me for something, it is not only for all that I have done but also because I am a woman. They can’t stand (they won’t admit) to argue with a woman and that they cannot be right.

Translated by William Fitzhugh

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