Translating Cuba – Page 132 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Cubans Have Become the Second Largest Nationality To Solicit Asylum in Mexico

From January to November of this year, 16,376 Cuban nationals have requested asylum, a total of 22% of all cases

Migrants waiting to complete their paperwork at Comar in Tapachula, in the Mexican state of Chiapas. / EFE/Juan Manuel Blanco

14ymedio, Mexico, 5 December 2024 — According to statistics from the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR ) published this Tuesday, from January to November of this year, 16,376 Cubans formally applied for asylum, a total of 22% of all cases. This means that nationals of the island have become second largest group to apply for asylum in Mexico during 2024.

This is the second time in three years that Cubans have become the second largest group to to request asylum. This also happened in 2022 when 18,181 requested asylum. In both cases, Hondurans headed the list with 31,436 two years ago and 22,550 in 2024. Only in 2023 did a variation occur when 44,110 Haitians formally applied, surpassing 41,848 Honduran citizens and 18,450 Cubans

This year, applications for asylum in Mexico fell by 50%, from 140,725 to 73,317. Nevertheless, in the case of Cuba, the number has been stable in the last few years.

COMAR also reported that it completed processing for 5,124 applications submitted by Cubans, of which 3,514 were granted refugee status. In this sense, Cuba is second in the list of nationalities with a favorable outcome and is fourth if data from 2013 onward is taken into account because this adds 10,400 in more than a decade, behind only Honduras ( 73.095 ), Venezuela (25,683), and El Salvador (21,200). continue reading

Of the nine offices where the Commission for Aid to Refugees receives applications, the office in Tapachula, in Chiapas, a border state at the southernmost point in Mexico, is where the most applications are gathered, a total of 47,032 (64%). In this city, one of the primary stopping points for migrants in Mexican territory, in the last two months six caravans have formed bound for the United States, motivated by the pending arrival of Donald Trump to the White House in January of 2025.

The last two caravans have been dissolved by the Mexican authorities

Although the Ministry of the Interior has assured that at the end of November there will be an “open route” for migrants in transit through the country, the last two caravans have been dissolved by the Mexican authorities. The Fray Matías de Córdova Center for Human Rights in Chiapas denounced that a common procedure is that Immigration Agents “coerce families to get in their cars and in exchange they offer a document that allows regular transit for the next 20 days. But we have not seen this document and from experience we know that, in the end, they don’t give them anything, that it is only to break up the caravans,” the Center asserted.

The Center has also documented: “acts of intimidation by the National Immigration Institute and the National Guard aimed at migrant families and defenders of human rights.”

For Irineo Mujica, leader of the Peoples Without Borders Organization and one of the organizers of the migrant caravans, with these actions “the government of Mexico is sending a message to Trump.” In an interview with 14ymedio the activist asserted that: “immigration is used to negotiate.”

“They create a bottleneck in the south of the country , they take immigrants out of the route and put them at risk.” She added: “they bet on the exhaustion and breaking the spirit” of people and their main motivation she continued “is political and the immigrants always end up losing.”

Ever since taking power, the Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum promised a “humanitarian migrant strategy” and the development of an industrial center in the south of the country although she did not provide more details. Nevertheless she did report in the past month that the daily crossing of immigrants at the United States border had fallen by 75% from December of 2023, owing to action by the Mexican government. This statistic was issued in response to threats from Donald Trump to impose tariffs on exports from Mexico to the United States if Mexico does not find a way to reduce the migratory flow and organized crime.

Translated by William Fitzhugh

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Breakdowns and Lack of Fuel Are Ending the Service of the ‘Gazelles’ in Havana

There is fuel for only 60% of the capital’s microtaxis, says the Minister of Transport

A ’gazelle’ taxi stand in Havana / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 5 December 2024 — The catastrophic energy situation, which in the early hours of Wednesday caused the third collapse of the national electricity system in less than two months, is once again seriously affecting transport. Havana now has a limit of 9,800 liters of diesel per day for the service of the microtaxis, known as “gazelles.” As recognized by the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, “this does not cover the demand for the service, nor is it enough to supply the entire fleet.”

The fuel allows service for only between 225 and 228 microtaxis, just over 60% of the 435 vehicles. Assigning only one is not enough on the longest routes of between 24 and 26 kilometers, which affects the last laps,” the minister explains.

Out of the total number of vehicles, on the other hand, there are “80 that are paralyzed in the long term,” the official also reported. And more: “an average” of between 40 and 45 gazelles break down and don’t complete the maintenance service “to solve the different problems.” That is, only about 300 vehicles are operating regularly.

There are other problems such as “detachment of the side doors, broken windows and seats” and “social indisciplines”

“Gazelle minibuses are in intense overexploitation in their two work systems (day and night),” says Rodríguez Dávila, who summarized the 23 routes in more than 600,000 kilometers in the capital.

In addition to the lack of fuel and the “technical shutdowns in the workshop and eventualities due to lack of parts, pieces and accessories,” there are other problems such as “detachment of the side doors, breakage of continue reading

windows and seats” and “social indisciplines.” These do not allude only to travelers who don’t pay for the ticket – which has a cost of 5 pesos – but also to “public altercations or manifestations of aggression to drivers.”

To alleviate the problems, the company in charge of the service, Metrotaxis, has implemented a series of measures listed by Rodríguez Dávila, although it is not clear that they are effective. For example, the “redistribution by routes for the supply of fuel at bus terminals, with six points in different locations in the city, as well as the extension of the supply hours until two in the morning,” for “greater effectiveness and better use of fuel.”

Controls have also increased, he says, which have made it possible to discover “undue charges, route diversions, route openings and closings outside the established hours, non-compliance with trips and overstay in the taxi stands.” Since September, “199 violations have been detected,” which have led to 66 fines of between 1,250 and 3,750 pesos each, in addition to “10 closures of definitive leases and four temporary lease closures, 34 warning acts, 79 private warnings, three public warnings and three stimulation discounts.”

Nothing new under the sun, otherwise. The lack of diesel has only aggravated a service that was implemented with great success five years ago but that has been in frank decline for months. So much so that the gazelles are being replaced by private vehicles, increasingly present in the streets of Havana.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Nicaragua, A Political Tragedy

How far will the insane new absolutist experiment of the Ortega-Murillo couple go?

The Ortega-Murillo couple have also gone after social leaders who have dared to criticize them. / EFE

14ymedio, Federico Hernández Aguilar, San Salvador, 7 December 2024 — Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, as is often the case with entrenched despots, have finally lost one of the most basic political senses: that of proportion. The mere possibility of seeing themselves out of government is a dark cloud that has been threatening them since April 2018, when citizen discontent was expressed in the streets and squares of the main cities of Nicaragua like never before, demanding freedom. From that moment on, through the most crude repression, this marriage of unpresentables has done everything possible to accumulate power.

After removing political figures who could overshadow them, the Ortega-Murillos have also gone after social leaders who have dared to criticize them. Union spokespeople, Catholic bishops, representatives of non-official organizations, members of civic alliances and anyone who could be labeled as an “opponent” or “conspirator” have ended up behind bars or in exile. Even those businesspeople who, in order to look after their businesses, maintain their status or simply to avoid problems, were once active or passive accomplices of the regime, today pay a high price for the debt of bravery and courage they acquired — in exchange for crumbs — with their bleeding homeland.

Of course, when all the limits have been crossed, the political tragedy of a country irremediably borders on comedy. And the Ortega-Murillo couple is staging, from Nicaragua, the great Hispanic-American tragicomedy of our time. There is no capacity for astonishment that this criminal duo has not challenged. The mere fact that they are in power as a couple, in the official capacity of husband and wife — whether or not they share the marital bed — is in itself a challenge to any global historical revisionism of tyrannies. The Ortega-Murillo thing is already ridiculous, bizarre, grotesque. continue reading

The constitutional reforms approved by Parliament have completely restructured the country’s political system.

The constitutional reforms approved a few days ago by the parliament controlled by the ruling party have completely restructured the country’s political system. Under the rhetorical name of the Law for the Protection of Nicaraguans from Sanctions and External Aggression, the Sandinistas, back in power since 2007, have impacted a hundred articles of the current Constitution, including the indefinite reelection of the president, the creation of the gaseous positions of “co-president” and “co-presidentess” for Daniel and his wife, and the tacit elimination of the separation of powers. In a display of totalitarian paroxysm, Ortega-Murillo have gone so far as to elevate the red and black flag of the ruling party to the rank of “patriotic symbol.”

Of course, in the company of Venezuelan Chavismo-Madurismo, the discredit of the Nicaraguan dictatorship could not be deeper. It burned its ships long ago with the vast majority of the population; now it confirms that its paranoia is uncontrollable, extravagant and cartoonish. Priests “armed” with rosaries, besieged in their homes by police with rifles and pistols, constitute the most illustrative image of the degradation into which Daniel Ortega, once the leader of a triumphant revolution against the Somoza dynasty, has fallen.

The current version of Sandinismo, of course, quickly learned to generate its own forms of sustainability. Through a form of state corporatism, without business associations capable of defending the institutions and with a clumsy and fragmented political opposition, the dictatorship only had to silence the critical press to finish weaving its network of control. Added to the above, the Venezuelan oil rush remained at its peak for long enough to consolidate a framework of relations that journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, now an inspector of the regime, called in his day “the largest acts of corruption in Central America” (now surpassed by other neighbors).

How far will this crazy, new-fangled absolutist experiment go? No one can predict, although it is clear that it will end badly. Nicaraguan citizens are frightened, the opposition has gone into exile, and Western leaders are divided on the appropriate actions to take. Will someone whisper to the international community that the option of a multinational intervention alliance is urgent? Or will tyrants like Ortega and Maduro be allowed to continue destroying the lives of millions of people with impunity? We will see what happens in 2025.

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Cuban President Díaz-Canel’s Visit to Sancti Leaves Behind a Popular Fair With No Supplies

In the Kilo 12 neighborhood, this Saturday sales points for food, fruit and other basic products were improvised. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 30 November 2024 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s trips to Sancti Spíritus have their preamble and their coda. Before the Cuban leader arrives, it is easy to detect that the presidential motorcade is approaching: the collection of garbage, the hurried painting of the facades and the operation around the Communist Party’s guest house where he is staying give him away. But also, when he leaves, he leaves a trail, some touch-ups to convey the message that his presence has been worthwhile. This week the hustle and bustle has culminated in a food fair.

In the Kilo 12 neighborhood, this Saturday, sales points for food, fruit and other basic products were improvised. A table with sweet cookies here, a stand with pumpkins and some stunted yuccas there, next to trucks that, without even unloading the merchandise, hurried customers to buy 2.5 kilogram packages of frozen chicken at 1,580 pesos each. A starving horse pulled a cart that carried plantains and some tiny malangas. “There is almost nothing,” grumbled an old woman who warned: “those sweet potatoes have so much dirt stuck to them that you don’t even know what they are.”

At around noon, the number of people dropped because word spread in nearby neighborhoods that “the fair is bad.” / 14ymedio

A long line suggested some cheap merchandise, but the reality was white sugar at 380 pesos, a slightly lower price than the 400 that the product cost this week in the city’s MSMEs. In the long line, a woman detailed the difficulties she encountered when, on Friday, she wanted to approach Díaz-Canel to tell him about the housing problems she suffers in a home with part of the roof collapsed and her two elderly parents bedridden. When the woman tried to get to one of the points visited by the party leader, a barrier of State Security agents stopped her. “They told me that there was already a list of people who could speak with him and that I was not included.”

There was no shortage of fights and pushing at the fair. A girl of about ten years old walked near those waiting to buy and asked, in a barely audible voice, for 50 pesos to “eat something.” Around noon, an elderly man continue reading

collapsed and suffered an epileptic attack. “The poor man hasn’t been able to take his pills for weeks because there aren’t any in the pharmacy,” explained a young woman who was with him. None of the stalls were accepting electronic payments, so customers had to pay out huge wads of bills to take the products home.

At about noon, the number of visitors had decreased because word had spread in the nearby neighborhoods that “the fair is bad.” The merchants began to collect the boxes and bags with everything they could not sell. The show was over. The visitor for whom the fair was staged was already hundreds of kilometers away.

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With the Decision To Ban Wholesale Trade by Private Companies, Cuba’s ‘Honeymoon With MSMEs Is Over’

The Government publishes a new decree that increases the restrictions initiated last August

A small business selling candles and cookies out of the back of a truck in the Havana neighborhood of Luyanó. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 5 December 2024 — The Cuban government took another step on Thursday in the restrictions on business freedom initiated with the mega package of measures issued last August . A resolution published in the Official Gazette establishes what is called “the regulation of wholesale and retail marketing by non-state economic actors,” which translates into the obligation for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to sell wholesale with the mediation of the State, and the explicit prohibition of doing so by self-employed workers.

These measures are triggering a lot of anger within the private sector. Speaking to 14ymedio, on condition of anonymity, the accountant of a small business that sells some imported foods wholesale expressed his indignation. “Since the new measures were announced in August, we have been preparing ourselves. The honeymoon with MSMEs is over, now the State is showing its true abusive face with private companies. While they are closing us off, they are allowing more and more foreign companies, several of them Spanish, to sell wholesale.”

The only non-state actors that will be able to engage in wholesale trade – that is, as an intermediary between the producer and the consumer, selling to retail entities and also to wholesalers – are “those who have production approved as their main activity.” That is, as long as it is “only their productions” and “after obtaining a commercial license, where this activity is specified.” They will not be able, like other private entities, to market other “national or imported” products. continue reading

MSMEs and self-employed workers are allowed to continue selling at retail level “as long as it is approved in their corporate purpose”

MSMEs and self-employed workers are allowed to continue selling at retail level “as long as it is approved in their corporate purpose or project, and they have the commercial license to do so.”

Unlike the usual practice with the legal texts in the Official Gazette, this rule comes into force from the moment it is published, that is, today, which explains the speed with which – also contrary to custom – it has been reported in the official press which, on other occasions, usually takes days to do so.

The “regulation,” it is detailed “will be carried out gradually.” MSMEs and non-agricultural cooperatives (CNA) whose main activity is wholesale marketing will have a period of 90 working days to confirm that “they will continue to carry out wholesale activity with the participation of state entities.” To do so, they must update their corporate purpose and commercial license, a process that the authorities assure “will be done expeditiously.”

Those who do not ratify the resolution will have a maximum of 120 working days to “liquidate their inventories” that were intended for the wholesale trade. They may, according to the resolution, “continue retail sales, if they have defined this in their corporate purpose and have a commercial license.”

Those MSMEs that have wholesale trade as a secondary activity will have up to 120 working days to “settle their merchandise for wholesale purposes.” As previously, they will be allowed to continue selling at retail if it is in their corporate purpose and they have a license. If they want to dedicate themselves to wholesale, they will have to modify their corporate purpose, becoming subordinate to the State (“defining wholesale trade with the participation of state entities as their main activity, according to the established procedures,” the law indicates).

Finally, self-employed workers who are currently engaged in wholesale trade have a maximum of 120 working days to liquidate their wholesale goods, although they can continue to sell them at retail.

The commercial licenses of MSMEs and CNAs that have wholesale as a secondary activity will be revoked, according to the resolution, starting this Thursday. In addition, the Central Commercial Registry “ex officio cancels the registration of the wholesale trade activity of national or imported goods for self-employed workers.”

“The State is positioned as another intermediary instead of competing, raising the price and delaying the process”

Without the “state wholesalers,” wholesale will not be available to private companies. In its educational article, Cubadebate argues that this brings “benefits,” including allowing “non-state economic actors to use the infrastructure, transportation and commercial experience” of state entities, and contributing to the “reduction of transportation and storage costs, impacting the retail prices of products destined for the population.”

However, some commentators have been quick to contradict oficialdom. “Excuse me, but the above is not true,” says an on-line commenter who identifies himself as Preocupado Colorado. “The State positions itself as another intermediary instead of competing, raising the price and delaying the process. It uses the currency of private parties (to whom it does not sell foreign currency) instead of its own.”

And he goes on to list a string of obstacles placed in the way of Cuban entrepreneurs by the government, such as preventing “the possibility of importing directly, in order to introduce state importers and not to have to compete in imports,” and capping private companies “on the prices of key foods, chicken, oil, etc. to discourage their sale while state stores sell them for double the price.”

“In August, they had already reduced the possibility of selling between non-state legal entities, and now they are eliminating it,” continues Preocupado Colorado. “In this way, they are eliminating private competition in large-scale trade, maintaining the monopoly and the same inefficient structures that have led us to the need to be open to non-state actors.” At the same time that they “encourage foreign, Cuban-American investment,” they do not give “the same tax breaks to Cubans from Cuba who would like to invest,” laments the same citizen. “They charge them in foreign currency, they do not sell them foreign currency and they pursue them to find out where they got it from. They take away the CUC [Cuban peso] for the MLC [freely convertible currency], now they are taking things from MLC for the USD.”

What is the next step? he asks. “Eliminate any MSME that competes with a state entity in any way? Is this how the ’socialist’ state company will be efficient, by removing potential competition?” And he concludes bitterly: “I don’t think so. They are defrauding the trust of all those who invested their savings and life projects in this country. Once again.”

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Enveloped in the Surrounding Darkness, the First Christmas Decorations Shine in Havana

Santa’s red costume reigns in the private shops, but the regime’s olive green reigns in places under state management

The figure of an elf, with beard and pointed hat, stood out against the poor lighting in the shop.

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 7 December 2024 – The Christmas decorations have begun timidly to appear in Havana. The private sector, with its cafeterias, its bars and its shops, is at the forefront of the decorations, with lights and garlands that set officialdom’s teeth on edge. This December, however, there haven’t yet been any published diatribes from officials or party ideologues criticising all the little Christmas trees and Santas’ sleighs. Perhaps it’s because at this particular year’s end the principal enemy of any festivities is the crisis, and especially the power cuts, that leave the nativity scenes in semi-darkness.

Inside an independent outlet in the National Bus Terminal in Rancho Boyeros Avenue on Thursday night, the figure of an elf with beard and pointed hat stood out against the poor lighting in the shop. Having a certain visual mixture of garden gnome and Santa Claus, the inflatable doll reigned over the dimly lit display counters with their packets of sweet biscuits (cookies) and crisps (chips), all of them imported.

“Better not to even look at the prices, otherwise you’ll be shocked”, advised a young girl who’d arrived at the station carrying only a small backpack. “I’m going to need more than a wizard in a hood to see if I can manage to get on a bus”, she said. In front of her, on a counter full of goodies, piles of polystyrene snow surrounded a number of decorations in the form of Christmas presents. continue reading

Two men in the armed forces uniform of the Prevention Troops patrolled with their dogs

A string of tiny blinking lights attempted to bring some kind of festive atmosphere to the scene, but most people just hurried by and didn’t even glance at the Christmas display. Close by the business, two men in the armed forces uniform of the Prevention Troops, known as the Red Berets, patrolled the terminal with their dogs.

Santa’s red in the private shops, and the regime’s olive green in the places under state management. A reindeer transporting presents on one side, and on the other side a German shepherd dog seeking out drugs, cheese, meat or seafood in passengers’ luggage, and, all about them, the semi-darkness of a station which had as little illumination as the buses that departed from it had.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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With the Increase in Violence, Cubans Lock Themselves In Their Homes

“Fear on the buses, in lonely streets, empty parks at night, windows and doors secured before dark,” lists the official magazine ‘Bohemia’

In a few years, argues the magazine Bohemia, the rise in crime in Cuba has been directly proportional to the deterioration of life / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 30 November 2024 — A short time ago, the digital magazine Bohemia presented a meticulous report about the rise of violence in Cuba. Interspersed between minor works, the text provides desolate figures – and many testimonies – from a survey whose scope was not revealed. Some 92.3% of those interviewed consider that crime has increased a lot, and 48.9% have been a direct victim in the last six months or know a victim. One-third do not trust the authorities to report the crime, and of those who did, 73.4% “did not see a solution to their complaint.”

In addition, after “various interviews conducted, and sociological, criminal and anthropological studies consulted,” they conclude that almost half of Cubans can list 10 or more violent crimes that occurred in the last semester. Eighty-three percent have completely changed their routines and have developed strategies to stay safe.

In a few years, argues Bohemia, the rise in crime in Cuba has been directly proportional to the deterioration of life, the “loss of values,” the increasingly massive “vulnerabilities” and the debacle of the “solution mechanisms” of conflicts by the Police. The magazine resorts to euphemisms and asks to consult the official data; it has no choice but to admit that the authorities usually have their lips sealed in this regard.

The magazine resorts to euphemisms and asks to consult the official data; it has no choice but to admit that the authorities usually have their lips sealed

“However,” they ironize, “comparative statistical sites such as Infobae and Numbeo report that Cuba is among the countries with the lowest crime rates in America.”

Although banditry and crimes of gender violence in rural areas are undeniable, it is in municipal capitals and large towns where the increase in crime is perceived with particular intensity. “There is fear on the buses, in lonely dark streets and empty parks, and windows and doors are secured before dark,” says Bohemia.

In Guantánamo, the magazine reports, the official announcer David Alexis González, who was sleeping, was stabbed to death in continue reading

his own house by robbers. The authorities of the Ministry of the Interior took three months to provide an official version, and only after they had captured the alleged murderers.

Providing information, Bohemia regrets, is “a rare practice” in the Police and is almost always done late, despite the fact that the “unofficial media and Facebook profiles” had already offered details of the case.

The “alternative media” are the evidence, the magazine reasons, that there is “a need for information that is still unsatisfied, due to the lack of official spaces that clarify and provide figures on this type of event. That insufficiency does not disappear; it is redirected to various alternative channels of communication.”

The “alternative media” are the evidence, the magazine reasons, that there is “a still-unsatisfied need for information”

Bohemia distinguishes a spectrum of independent media from those that have “sensationalist traits” and “lack rigor and professionalism” to those that, they recognize, are serious, but “intend to sell Cuba as an unsafe country.” “But the truth is that yes, on the networks there are also complaints of real events. Some of them increase popular interest, causing a response, generally late, from the state media.”

“Yesterday they stole a propane tank from a doctor who lives from hand to mouth, and last week they tried to enter a garage near the nursing home. A neighbor woke up, turned on the light, and that’s why they left. I bolt my door with a Yale lock, latch the windows and put sticks and stones behind the door. If someone breaks in, at least it will make noise and wake me up.” This is how a woman of 50 years old interviewed by Bohemia expressed herself, “almost paranoid,” during a nocturnal conversation with her daughter.

Cuban houses are “a Sing Sing prison,” the woman joked, with a nervous laugh. Her fear is not based on what she reads on social networks, the magazine narrows down, but on her own experiences and on what she reads in the newspapers, “official or not.”

Another statement, from Elizabeth Bello – a girl from Havana – tells the story of the theft of her cell phone. When she took out her phone on Belascoaín Street at three in the afternoon, “two teenagers punched her in the neck, which made her fall to the ground, and they wrenched her cell phone away from her.” Bello attributed the robbery to the fact that she had been mistaken “for a foreigner.” “I immediately made the complaint. I was in the Police Unit until two in the morning, almost 12 hours!”

Daily life in Cuba is rapidly deteriorating, and the Criminal Law, Bohemia regrets, “is not an instrument of change”

Daily life in Cuba is rapidly deteriorating, and the Criminal Law, Bohemia regrets, “is not an instrument of change.” Crime cannot be eradicated without an improvement in living conditions. “Legal sector managers link the significant increase in crime in our nation to the scarcity of resources, goods and food and high inflation.” The response of the Prosecutor’s Office, they point out, has been to judge “property crime with greater rigor.”

On the other hand, there are more and more ex-convicts who commit crimes again because “it is difficult for them to find work and even be received by their families.” The stigmatization and the fact that they return to the same environment of poverty from which they came “are stimuli to recidivism.”

The buses and their stops – especially in the capital – are an environment of frequent crimes. Leonardo Rodríguez, waiting to board a P6 to Mantilla, saw two young people brandishing knives at each other, each belonging to different gangs – with members of both sexes – who looked at them from afar, armed with knives and machetes. The stop was in the middle of the “battlefield” that, with stones, was then formed. There were women and children. “That’s normal here; it happens almost every day,” Rodríguez said.

In this type of neighborhood, life is characterized by “the loss of values and the educational crisis, laziness and the delegitimization of work as a source of income, machismo and violence,” lists Bohemia.

Gender violence is separate issue, and Bohemia is scandalized that the most complete data offered by the Government are from a date as far away as 2016. Femicides are the “most followed” cases due to their importance. For researchers, the absence of official information leaves a “bad taste” since they cannot determine if there is really an increase in cases or “if in reality there was always a similar number of cases that were not classified as such.”

Women who suffer sexist violence clash with the “insensitivity of officials”

Women who suffer sexist violence clash with the “insensitivity of officials,” the magazine insists. “Questioning the victims when making the complaint, dismissal of danger or the seriousness that the situation implies, delays in taking statements in the PNR [National Revolutionary Police] Units or in the collection of evidence at the scene, exposure of the victims to the reconstruction of the story too many times”: everything influences the “loss of confidence” in the Police that is currently confirmed.

In this sense, they emphasize “a detail”: “The police forces are also affected by the prevailing socioeconomic panorama, which causes a decrease in police personnel in charge of attending, processing and solving crimes. In the end, neither victims nor perpetrators nor executors escape the context.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Many Private Merchants Close Their Premises in the Face of the State Offensive Against Illegalities

Inspectors confiscate the merchandise or fine sellers who do not put price labels on their products

Many individuals have stopped selling for fear of fines / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 5 December 2024 — With December came a new wave of persecutions of self-employed sellers throughout Cuba. The so-called “national exercise against crime and illegalities,” which the official press defends as “necessary” and “timely,” has not only put in check the self-employed, who have had to close their shops or pay fines, but also the families of the Island, who at the end of the year have run out of places to buy food.

“This week I went out to buy some items to repair my burner and some oil-based paint, but I had to go around the city a lot because all the private shops for these items were closed,” Roberto, a resident of Sancti Spíritus, tells 14ymedio. “The few vendors I was able to talk to told me that there’s a state offensive going on against the private sector. Apparently, there are many inspectors visiting the private businesses one by one.”

According to Roberto, the witch hunt has already fined several owners, many of them for “nonsense.” “They gave a saleswoman a 5,000-peso fine because the wind had blown off a price tag, and it was on the ground. Another, whose product did not show the price anywhere, was fined 80,000 pesos,” he says.

After giving up buying the tools he needed, Roberto decided to go to the place where he usually buys paint

After giving up buying the tools he needed, Roberto decided to go to the place where he usually buys oil-based paint. “I arrived, and the saleswoman, who knows me, opened her eyes wide and pointed to three inspectors who were in the store. One was looking at the list to see if the prices were right and two others were verifying that the QR codes to pay were functional. She made signs that she had paint but couldn’t sell it,” he explains. continue reading

He wasn’t doing well in the search for food either. “I went to the Kilo 12 market and the stalls were also closed. Some people there told me that a cart had stopped with bags of coal at 1,100 pesos, and the authorities had confiscated all the merchandise,” says Roberto, who adds: “All the other stalls closed out of fear.”

Stories like these continue to circulate on the streets of the city, Roberto admits. “They also told me that a man who was selling a pot of chili for 70 pesos was fined 7,000 pesos because it is not the agreed price for that product. There are even some inspectors from Havana who have been brought in for this control exercise.”

Frustrated with the impossibility of finding what he was looking for, Roberto decided to try his luck for the last time before returning home empty-handed. “I finally found some cucumbers in a place that, at first glance, seemed to be closed. All the people were scattered throughout the street and when someone arrived he would discreetly ask who was the last in line. They kept going in one by one,” he said.

Roberto recognizes that prices are high, but doubts that a “wave of fines left and right” is the solution

Roberto recognizes that food prices are high, but doubts that a “wave of fines left and right” is the solution. On the contrary, he reflects, the authorities are pushing sellers into smuggling when they also depend on the prices demanded by their suppliers. “As a result, almost everyone has closed because they are afraid of being fined. They say that until the wave of inspectors passes, they will not reopen.”

The case of Sancti Spíritus has been repeated throughout the country since the control began last Monday. According to images released on social networks, in a market in Santiago de Cuba, inspectors confiscated the products of some sellers, which provoked complaints from other self-employed and customers. “They are struggling and have small children,” someone is heard screaming in the recording while some police officers and others in civilian clothes grapple with the sellers who try to prevent them from confiscating a wheelbarrow.

The government of Havana has also left on its social networks the traces of the inspection of forklift drivers and small vendors. “In the tour of the Palatine Council, the marketing of agricultural products with no visible price is detected,” warns the publication, which announces a fine of 5,000 pesos for the infraction and another 2,000 for “not presenting commercial authorization.”

In November, 3,402 inspections were carried out that resulted in 2,783 fines totalling more than 8 million pesos

In Camagüey, an article published this Thursday by the official press says that this December the control is carried out with greater emphasis because “confronting abusive prices” is a State priority. According to the data published by Adelante, in November 3,402 inspections were carried out that resulted in 2,783 fines totalling more than 8 million pesos. “These coordinated actions were implemented last July with an amount that exceeds 39 million, including November,” the newspaper concludes.

Despite the obvious discontent of the self-employed and the customers, who have suddenly seen the shops where they usually buy closed, the Government has defended the measure, which will last until Saturday, December 7. “It is a comprehensive exercise, with participation and popular control, which strengthens the unity of our people and is oriented above all to confront manifestations of corruption,” Miguel Díaz-Canel said last Monday, when he gave the starting point to the army of inspectors.

However, the president acknowledged that the problems identified by the “exercise” cannot be “confronted in one day, in two, in a week, in a certain time,” something evident if we take into account that the Regime has launched similar offensives in past months – the last of them this summer – without result

This December, Cubans will once again desist from the holidays, the roasted piglet and the traditional family reunion at the end of the year. Instead, they will have the concern of looking for what to eat if, due to state “control,” “the platforms are stripped.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With 98.9 Percent of the Votes, Díaz-Canel’s Candidates Replace Those Dismissed ‘For Errors’ in Las Tunas, Cuba

Yelenys Tornet Menéndez and Juana Viñals Suárez were first proposed by the president

Yelenys Tornet Menéndez and Juana Viñals Suárez are the new governor and vice-governor of Las Tunas. / Periodico 26

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 9 December 2024 — Two women were elected this Sunday to occupy the positions of governor and vice-governor of the province of Las Tunas by the delegates to the Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power, following the resignation and suspension of those who previously held those responsibilities.

Yelenys Tornet Menéndez and Juana Viñals Suárez, first proposed by the country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, were elected as governor and vice governor, respectively, as a result of the vote of the 637 delegates (98.9% of those summoned), reported the state-run Cuban News Agency (ACN).

According to the National Electoral Council (CEN), 99.53% of the votes were cast, there were no spoiled ballots and three blank ballots (1.10%). The new governor and vice-governor of the eastern province are scheduled to take office within 21 days of their election. continue reading

According to the National Electoral Council (CEN), a 99.53% of the votes were cast, there were no spoiled ballots and three blank ballots were registered.

The women replace Jaime Chiang Vega, who resigned from his post as governor for “errors” who resigned from his post as governor for “errors” last October, and Vice Governor Ernesto Cruz Reyes, who was suspended from his post for “incurring violations in the exercise of his responsibilities,” according to official media reports at the time.

In the case of Cruz Reyes, his removal from office was endorsed today by the delegates with 620 votes in favor and 16 against.

Last April, the governor of the province of Cienfuegos, Alexandre Corona, also resigned from his post after “acknowledging errors” committed during his four years in office.

A year ago, all the governors were elected for five-year terms, but for various reasons several provinces have had to look for replacements early.

The report notes that the proposals for candidates to fill these positions were submitted by the president to the National Electoral Council, as provided for in the Constitution of the Republic and the Electoral Law.

Candidates must be born in Cuba, have no other citizenship, be at least 30 years old, reside in the province for which they were nominated and be in full enjoyment of civil and political rights. To be elected, candidates must obtain more than 50% of the valid votes cast.

A year ago, all the governors were elected for five-year terms, but for various reasons several provinces have had to look for replacements early.

According to the Constitution approved in 2019, each province is governed by a Provincial Government of People’s Power, made up of a governor and a provincial council.

Díaz-Canel has reiterated in recent months the Government’s “zero tolerance” for economic crimes and corruption, and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, quoted in official media, has also called for “a stronger hand” in the face of “laxity, lack of demand and control” in the state sector.

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San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, From ‘Humor’ to ‘Horror’

The passage of Hurricane Rafael through Artemisa and other western provinces fueled the desperation of Cubans where the ’11J’ protests broke out in 2021

The shortage of liquefied gas, prolonged power outages and a considerable increase in the cost of living are the problems that most torment the people of Ariguana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yankiel Gutierrez Faife, San Antonio de Los Baños, 8 December 2024 — The protest of 11 July 2021 is still fresh in the memory of San Antonio de los Baños, in the province of Artemisa. It was a desperate cry in the face of an accumulation of problems that still remain unresolved. The inhabitants of what was once the “Villa del Humor” – the title is no small thing in such a guarachero country – can now only list their sorrows.

Founded by emigrants from the Canary Islands, San Antonio was home to or exhibited the work of cartoonists such as Eduardo Abela and René de la Nuez. The Museo del Humor Gráfico, founded in 1948, a Biennial of Humor held since 1979, and the Escuela de Cine y Televisión, which still enjoys a certain prestige abroad, bear witness to better times.

Real life, however, is different. The 50,000 or so Ariguanabenses who still live there have ridiculed the old name and replaced it with a new one, Villa del Horror, more in keeping with the ruined buildings, the deserted streets and the mournful expression of its inhabitants.

In the markets of San Antonio, the price of food has skyrocketed, reaching figures that some consider unthinkable. / 14ymedio

Tania, a teacher from the village, has put together a brief chronology of the disaster: during the Special Period, conditions were very difficult, between blackouts and the cessation of nightlife and culture; from the year 2000 there was a truce; but after the pandemic we have “seen and experienced things like never before.”

These are not problems that the rest of Cuba is unaware of, but the passage of Hurricane Rafael through Artemisa and other western provinces has fueled the desperation of the people in the town. The cyclone ripped off roofs, left streets flooded and many facilities in disrepair. Many homes have hit rock bottom.

Delia, a 52-year-old housewife, knows this well. She sees a procession of neighbours carrying buckets of water from the Ariguanabo River every day. “Getting a water truck costs 2,500* pesos, and I don’t have the money to continue reading

buy two trucks a week. So, when there’s no other option, I go to wash clothes in the river too,” she says, pointing to the series of wet clothes hanging from a clothesline in her yard.

The nearly 50,000 Ariguanabenses who live there have still ridiculed the old title and replaced it with a new one, Villa del Horror. / 14ymedio

Delia has been hunting for a gas cylinder for four months. She is on an endless list whose basic characteristic is always having more applicants than cylinders. There is the black market, where a tank costs around 32,000 pesos or – if the metal container is provided – around 12,000. “There are other alternatives that are just as bad for the pocket: oil and coal stoves. Getting one is, in addition to being expensive, an odyssey,” she says.

Delia’s father listens to the conversation. In the past, the woman liked to cook the old man’s favourite dishes without worrying about the cost of the food and its preparation. The father’s meager pension allows him to buy “some fuel.” “Sometimes I just can’t cook,” she exclaims, making sure that two neighbors passing by her door can hear her.

Her mornings have become a search for coal, which has become unaffordable. “At the La Salud store, my husband got it a little cheaper, but even so, 1,000 pesos is a lot when the rest of the food is also so expensive,” she confesses.

Luisa, a single mother of two, divides her time between looking after her family and looking for some gas to cook with. “Sometimes, when I feel cornered, I have had to turn to my neighbors to be able to prepare food for my children,” complains Luisa. “The neighbor has often given me some coal that they buy, and with that I have been able to cook when I don’t have time to get ahead and the electricity is cut off.”

“The sick need a special diet and children need adequate food,” lament the residents of San Antonio. / 14ymedio

“The sick need a special diet and the children need the right food for their growth and development. I can’t give them that,” she adds. “Sometimes I can only offer them rice with some broth because we can’t eat beans every day. I can barely find legumes, everything has gone up in price and I don’t have money to buy more,” she laments, while her children play in the street.

In the markets of San Antonio, the price of food has skyrocketed, reaching figures that some consider unthinkable. “Rice is 180 pesos per pound; beans are 300; a pound of malanga is 120; a pound of tomatoes is 1,000 pesos. A liter of milk is 150; sugar is 500. I can only buy the basics and sometimes I find myself in a tight spot,” says Luisa, who leaves her house with a small gas canister in a small cart.

As if the desperation were not enough, the long blackouts add insult to injury. “There are five hours without electricity and then five with electricity. During that time, life here stops. The shop assistants take their chairs out to the entrance and the bank workers go for a walk and chat in the park. People are out on the streets, but there is no joy, only frustration,” explains Jorge, a young man who used to work in commerce. Now he sits with his friends in any public space and, to mitigate the desolation, they tell jokes.

Like any town in Cuba, the migratory stampede is also part of the landscape.

“A sack of coal has come to cost up to 2,000 pesos and there are days when one of those trucks enters the town loaded with coal and, in just 30 minutes, everything is sold. This cannot be sustained,” says Pedro, 68 years old.

Like any town in Cuba, the migratory stampede is also part of the landscape. “My brother left for the United States six months ago and, although he tries to help us from there, the situation here gets worse every day,” says Ana, who, tired of waiting for the electricity to come on, sits outside the Credit and Commerce Bank – still closed – to see if she can get the 3,000 pesos that they allow tp be withdrawn.

Around Ana, several women comment on how things are still the same three years after the protests. Blackouts, misery, people who have left the country, families that have been divided in search of a better future. “People took to the streets because this is not the country we want,” says Dariana, a young student. As things stand in San Antonio de los Baños, another ’11J’ could happen tomorrow.

*Translator’s note: Minimum and average salaries in Cuba fluctuate and accurate current data is hard to come by. One set of reference numbers for 2024 is presented here.

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One Hundred Years of Solitude Was Not Released in Macondo

The Cuba of flesh and blood is very far from what Carpentier called the “real maravilloso”

Presentation of the series in the Taganana room of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba. / Capture

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 8 December 2024 — The Cuban bureaucracy has celebrated with great fanfare that the adaptation of García Márquez’s masterpiece had its “world premiere” in Havana, before it was on Netflix. Perhaps the ICAIC [Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry] officials did not get the producers’ sarcasm. It sounded great, from the point of view of capitalist marketing, to announce that this audiovisual product had its premiere in the most absurd and dystopian place on the continent. Cuba is the Latin American country where, many years later, people still run the risk of ending up in front of a firing squad. Cuba is the dark corner of the world where children may no longer know what ice is, due to perpetual blackouts.

However, the premiere was not in Havana. On December 4, Brussels had already witnessed a special screening of the first chapter and a discussion. Two days earlier, in Mexico City, a similar event had taken place with a cocktail party, panels and talks. Anyone who knows Alexis Triana, the current president of the ICAIC, knows well that he would be capable of disguising some filmmaker as an Eskimo to inflate his festivals and announce the presence of Inuit cinema on the Island.

One of the attendees at the Havana screening, according to Radio Rebelde, said excitedly upon leaving the Yara cinema: “I was left wanting more, I have to look for the rest of the series.” Obviously he was not referring to looking for it on the famous streaming service, since only a tiny minority of Cubans have the luxury of accessing that platform. He was surely referring to getting a pirated copy on El Paquete [’The Packet’], our local Netflix. The advertising spot itself for this 45th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema pays a very unsubtle tribute to piracy, saturated with what Abel Prieto calls “cultural colonization.”

García Márquez’s novel is one of the best examples of magical realism, without a doubt.

García Márquez’s novel is one of the best examples of magical realism, without a doubt. But the Cuba of flesh and blood is very far from what Carpentier called the ‘real maravilloso’. It is rather a reality that frightens, horrifies, disillusions, depresses. One would have to be very sick to continue continue reading

romanticizing the misery and oppression suffered by the overwhelming majority of Cubans. One would have to make a very toxic reading of love, to continue believing that in Cuba the ones who govern are “those who love and build” or that “the country advances.” That land, (beautiful, yes) where many of us were born, but from which millions of us had to escape, suffers the plagues of insomnia and oblivion in a more brutal way than those suffered by the people of Macondo. And still no alchemist has appeared who can find a remedy.

In the Macondo-like Cuba, the government is not governed by a Buendía*, but by a puppet with the last name Díaz-Canel. This reserve lieutenant colonel, who achieved his military ranks God knows how, is far from possessing the gift of clairvoyance. On the contrary, the subject is the favorite son of impudence and bad luck. He is also the most gifted student in the subject of “making a mistake” that is effusively taught in the Party school. We also do not know if he has a pig’s tail, we are not interested in investigating those parts. What we do know is that there are many other characteristics that he shares with the quadruped to which his loyal singers of Buena Fe awarded the title of “national mammal.”

The oldest dictatorship on the continent has already existed for more than half a century, although we hope it does not reach 100.

The oldest dictatorship on the continent has already existed for more than half a century, although we hope it does not reach 100 years… of solitude. According to the saying, there is no evil that can last so long. Borges’ anecdote is well-known when he said that García Márquez’s novel was good, but that fifty years would have been enough.

On the other hand, the novel that Fidel Castro imposed on us as reality has become a soap opera that is impossible to praise, unless bad taste dominates us. It has already been more than six decades of crisis, exoduses, prisons, mediocrity and death. The thread of blood that the patriarch left us runs through, not just a town, but an entire country, and extends beyond borders. The crazed old man ended his days tied to a chestnut tree, in the courtyard of history, reflecting with the ghosts of his enemies.

Rivers of ink will flow talking, good or bad, about the Netflix series. Although it is very likely that it will not satisfy a good part of the general public. Gabo himself refused during his lifetime to have the apple of his eye adapted to the cinema. He himself said: “I prefer that my readers continue to imagine my characters as their uncles and my friends, and not that they remain totally conditioned by what they saw on screen.” Beyond the possible success or failure of the Netflix series, what no one doubts is the desperation of a regime that is dying, capable of inventing premieres to raise the morale of the troops and elevate the chauvinist ego. The Castro apparatus should read the end of Gabo’s novel very carefully, to understand how the lineages condemned to a hundred years of solitude end up.

*Translator’s note: The Buendía family are the fictional founders of Macondo, the South American town that is the setting of the novel ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’.

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Cuba’s Pre-University Students Are Mobilized To Detect ‘Illegalities in the Self-Employed Sector’

Police found 168 boxes of Occidental Rum, from a state-owned company, diverted to the black market

The young people accompany the inspectors who control the prices. / X/GladysLaCubana

14ymedio, Havana, 6 December 2024 — Private businesses are the main target of the persecution by inspectors in the “national exercise against crime and illegalities,” but they also do not escape cases of corruption in state entities, such as the Occidental Rum, in Havana, where several employees ended up “sanctioned” and “removed from the center.”

According to the Cuban Television news program, which offers only superficial information, it was discovered that “the alleged perpetrators” were diverting bottles of rum, marking them as waste in the registers. “Days ago, the authorities seized 168 boxes of Legendario rum in a house in San Miguel del Padrón. Destination: the black market,” the media explains.

From that point on, the information lacks relevant details, such as the positions held by those involved or what kind of measures will be taken against them. “In addition to being under police investigation, those involved received heavy administrative sanctions including dismissal from the center,” is all that is clarified.

The “control” has not gone down well with citizens, even less with those who have businesses and investments to protect.

The rest is the usual voluntarism* approach of state entities, which is based solely on the time and disposition of workers: strengthening “the workers’ guard,” applying “surprise checks” or improving “the prevention plan.” In an attempt to clean up their reputation, the authorities of the rum factory also promised to “produce a bottle of refined rum for each of the more than 700,000 Havana families by the end of the year.” continue reading

The “control” has not gone down well with citizens, and even less with those who have businesses and investments to protect, who are increasingly surrounded by laws and distrust of the government. At the end of the year, the authorities have launched a campaign to collect millions of pesos in fines and hold exemplary trials such as the one last Wednesday in Guantanamo, where four state workers were sentenced to one year in prison for diverting food.

In Ciego de Ávila, students from three pre-university schools and other higher institutes were even called upon. They are divided into groups made up of inspectors and students and are in charge of verifying that the merchants have their prices up to date and within the legal limits. According to the applause of the provincial media Invasor, which forgets that the students are close to midterm exams, the group of adolescents contributes “to confronting speculative prices and other illegalities detected in the self-employed sector.”

The authorities have also carried out nightly “operations” in “specific food trafficking scenarios in the territory.” In one raid alone on 15 food stalls in the early hours of Wednesday morning, 72,000 pesos were collected in fines.

This week, inspectors sanctioned many of the informal vendors who proliferate in the EJT [Youth Labor Army] market. / 14ymedio

According to 14ymedio, a similar operation took place this week at the Youth Labor Army market on Tulipán Street in Nuevo Vedado (Havana). The hunt ended with the authorities sanctioning many of the informal vendors who proliferate outside the market and sell everything from matchsticks and bags to onions and eggs.

In contrast, in Sancti Spíritus, where this newspaper reported the closure of several private businesses due to the persecution of inspectors, the leaders are not satisfied. “Even though there are tangible results in confronting negative behavior, we are still far from what we should achieve,” concluded Deivy Pérez Martín, first secretary of the Communist Party in the province.

The principle problem in the territory, however, is not the illegalities. “Sancti Spíritus shows a deficit of 150 million pesos, which are needed to close the year with a surplus. Although the Onat [National Tax Administration Office] has managed to collect some 30 million pesos from taxpayers, there are still another 35 million waiting for defaulters to pay their debts at the corresponding bank branches,” explains Escambray.

The media believes that, “even if it is a bit too finalistic,” it is necessary to provide solutions to the “irregularities” detected. “Therefore, the authorities and the organizations involved, all of them, together with the people, have to take part not only for one week but every day of the year in the fight against crimes, corruption, illegalities and social indiscipline,” which, in the words of Escambray, “is a lot to cover.”

*Translator’s note: Relying on voluntary action.

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Opposition Leader Manuel Cuesta Morúa Released in Cuba After Seven Hours of Arrest

Cuesta Morúa had alerted his closest circle the day before that State Security was watching outside his home

The opposition is an uncomfortable figure for the regime because of his method of dissenting through official channels. / EFE

EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 1 December 2024 — Cuban opposition leader Manuel Cuesta Morúa was released on Saturday in Havana after being detained for about seven hours. The arrest took place mid-morning in the vicinity of his home and after the dissident alerted his closest circle that he had been under surveillance outside his home by Cuban security forces since the day before.

Several human rights organizations and NGOs had denounced the arrest and said they were unaware of the motive – although it could be a “preventive” arrest prior to December 10, Human Rights Day – or the whereabouts of Cuesta Morúa. Dissident sources said, however, that they had no record of other arrests in the diminished opposition group on the island.

The NGO Cubalex, for its part, “called on the international community to keep its attention on human rights violations in Cuba” by denouncing the dissident’s arrest. continue reading

Cuesta Morúa recently filed an appeal with the Supreme Court to request the release of José Daniel Ferrer

Cuesta Morúa recently filed a habeas corpus petition with the Cuban Supreme Court to request the immediate release of opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer, an initiative that has so far received no official response. The appeal was filed shortly after Ferrer’s family reported that the prisoner held for political reasons had received a “brutal beating” from staff at the Mar Verde prison (Santiago de Cuba), where he has been held since July 11, 2021.

Cuesta Morúa is an uncomfortable figure for the regime because of his method of dissenting through official channels. At the beginning of the year, Parliament rejected a petition to process an amnesty law that was promoted by dozens of relatives of political prisoners. From that request, which the National Assembly classified as “inappropriate,” a broad debate arose on the relevance or not of appealing to the Cuban regime’s own laws to promote change on the Island. In an interview given to 14ymedio, the activist said that “dictatorships are possible only if they institutionalize all social life. They are also obliged to incorporate the language and certain democratic tools,” which citizens must take advantage of.

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Lines, Curiosity and Even Tears: Cubans Experience the Series ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’

The audience was mostly Cuban and foreign university students.

The initial episodes of the miniseries were shown at 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. / 14ymedio

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 7 December 2024 — For one night, Havana stopped being a city of old people and beggars to show off its youth. The reason: the screening, this Friday, of the first two episodes of One Hundred Years of Solitude, the miniseries recently produced by Netflix based on the novel by Gabriel García Márquez. To watch, dozens of young Cubans and foreigners came to the Yara cinema.

Amidst the sea of people, Sofia Morales, a medical student from Valle del Cauca, Colombia, waits as she weaves through the crowd and anxiously asks how she can get a ticket to see the screening. The young woman has arrived too early. The first showing, at 8:00 p.m., is intended for movie-goers with invitations to the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, which runs from Thursday through December 15. A much later showing, at 10:00 p.m., has been reserved for the general public.

Morales, who has been in Cuba for two years now, is willing to do anything to watch on the screen one of the books that left the greatest impression on her. “Either I dare to let my imagination run wild with everything I read in the book or I dare to watch the series and have it change my view of everything García Márquez wrote,” she says.

Like her, most of the audience are university students, whether Latin American, African or from other continents; or from the Island, like Adiel and her friends, who test the atmosphere to try to get in. “We found out later that it was by invitation, but we are just curious,” she says.

Minutes later, Morales, against all odds, finds a seat in the first showing with her Palestinian-American boyfriend, with whom she wants to share García Márquez’s work because “it expresses everything that Colombia is: the classes, the people, but in a different way.” continue reading

The lights go out in the room and there is total silence. It is at that moment that a phrase resounds, causing more than one person to stop solemnly and applaud, while others simply shed tears: “Many years later, facing the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

Outside, in the theater’s entrance, many people wait until the 10:00 screening begins, and the crowd contrasts with the empty lobby of a few hours earlier, when people were gathered in lines at the cashiers at 23rd and N. Two puny palm trees wrapped in garlands try to give a Christmas atmosphere to the Yara, which, along with the rest of the venues designated for the Festival’s activities, is an oasis of light in a country besieged by blackouts.

Dozens of people went to the cinema to try to see ’One Hundred Years of Solitude’. / 14ymedio

The premiere of the One Hundred Years of Solitude series was the main event of the second day of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana. Netflix, whose products reach Cubans mainly through pirated films, plans to premiere this miniseries worldwide on December 9 in Bogotá.

García Márquez (1927-2014) was a figure closely linked to Cuba and its cinema for years. Among other things, he presided over the New Latin American Cinema Foundation, an organization based in Havana. His friendship with Fidel Castro, of whom he was a staunch supporter, put him at the center of dozens of controversies.

On Belascoaín Street, between Malecón San and Lázaro, the film ’The Horn of Plenty’ is being screened. A few spectators gather around, attracted by the tables and a food stand. / 14ymedio

The writer played an important diplomatic role in the service of the regime and was a key figure in the exchange of prisoners and people of interest to Castroism. Despite this, finding his books in recent editions is an impossible task in the country where, for decades, he had a protocol mansion assigned to his family.

The main movie theaters in the Cuban capital will screen the 110 films – 89 fewer than last year – in competition for ten days from 42 countries such as Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Spain and the Island itself. The Havana Festival was founded on 3 December 1979, conceived in imitation of the festivals of Viña del Mar (1967 and 1969), Mérida (1968 and 1977) and Caracas (1974).

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Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Eliminates the Exception That Allowed Cubans To Return to the Country With an Expired Passport

From April 1, 2025, Cubans returning to the island will need to have the updated document

The cost of the passport is 2,500 pesos in the offices of the Island / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 6 December 2024 — Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Friday that, starting April 1 of next year, Cubans living abroad will need a valid passport to enter the country, thus eliminating an exceptional measure in force since the coronavirus pandemic that allowed entry even with an outdated document.

The statement, signed by the Director General of Consular Affairs and Assistance to Cubans Living Abroad, Ana Teresita González, clarifies that entry with an expired passport may be made until the last day of March.

The text states that consular offices abroad “are fully prepared and capable of providing this service, with the speed required, so that Cubans can enter the country with their valid passport as of April 1, 2025.”

The announcement revokes a temporary measure taken in 2020, in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The announcement revokes a temporary measure taken in 2020, in the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, which allowed Cubans residing in other countries to enter the island with their expired passports. The exception included extending the time Cuban citizens could stay abroad beyond the 24 months officially provided for by law, without losing their residency in Cuba. continue reading

The measure announced on Friday comes just a few months after the approval of the new Immigration Law , a law that – together with the Immigration and Citizenship Laws – aims to “design procedures” for Cubans leaving the Island and also to control the “increase in the number and diversity of migratory irregularities involving foreigners.”

The measure announced this Friday comes a few months after the approval of the new Migration Law.

The law also provides that Cubans living abroad can keep their properties on the island, even if they have spent more than two years away. Those who spend more than 24 consecutive months without returning to Cuba will no longer be called “emigrants,” and those who spend “most of their time in the national territory” will be called “effective residents.”

The Cuban passport, one of the most expensive in the world at a cost of 180 dollars or euros when issued abroad and 2,500 pesos in the island’s offices, will be valid for 10 years, instead of the previous six years as of July 1, 2023. At that time, the need to extend the validity of the document every two years was also suspended, and the cost of issuing it – which previously varied depending on the country where it was requested – was fixed.

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