Translating Cuba – Page 139 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Cuba: Woman Reported Missing in Santa Clara Found Dead in Her Ex-Partner’s Home

The murder of stylist Disneys Borrero, in San Miguel del Padrón, was another of the murders reported this week

Elaine Gonzalez is the mother of two girls / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 14 November 2024 — The independent platforms Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba (YSTC) confirmed a new femicide on Thursday. It is that of Elaine González Estrada, whose body was found on November 5 at the home of her ex-partner, two days after her disappearance was reported in the city of Santa Clara

That day, according to a complaint on Facebook by her cousin Diayani Pérez, the victim, a mother of two girls, went out in the morning to sell “a couple of rings” to a man at Parque Arcoíris, a recreational facility located on the outskirts of the city, on the Central Highway. According to the story, her ex-partner had seen González with the buyer.

Shortly after, González posted photos “from the outside” of Somos Jóvenes – another recreational complex located on the outskirts, on the Camajuaní Highway – to her WhatsApp status, something that her cousin considered “strange,” since the victim also frequently posted “photos of herself” inside the facility. The message indicates that in the afternoon communication with González was lost. “She never made a call to check on her daughter, nor a call to her family,” her cousin remarks. continue reading

According to the report from Alas Tensas and YSTC on Thursday, the attacker fled, but was captured

According to a report by Alas Tensas and YSTC on Thursday, the aggressor fled the scene but was captured by the police. The NGOs also said that the family has suffered “revictimization due to the poor work of the authorities.”

They also stressed that many femicides have been preceded by early warnings from citizens about disappearances, “which are still not considered key by the authorities. The time of action is crucial to finding a person at risk alive.”

With this case, the country totals 43 victims of gender-based violence during 2024, according to the 14ymedio count . Last October was the month with the most femicides on the Island so far this year. According to the count of this media, seven cases were registered, which exceeded the figure for January, when six were verified.

Another murder this week was that of Disneys Borrero, a young hairstylist – whose age is not specified – from the Havana municipality of San Miguel del Padrón. His murder occurred on November 11. The incident was reported by user Almakki Díaz on Facebook, where he reported the case as “another violent act, this time homophobic.” According to the post, Borrero was killed in the La Rosita neighborhood by his partner, who is currently on the run.

Borrero was murdered in the La Rosita neighborhood by his partner, who is currently on the run

The incident alarmed the municipality’s community, which reacted to the publication about the case. People close to the victim lamented the death of Borrero. “What a shame. That boy was a super good person. Decent and polite. And as a stylist he was the best,” said user Bertha Mariela Sablon.

YSTC told 14ymedio that it is investigating the case and said that it is evaluating all the elements in order to classify the murder.

Another case that recently affected the LGBTI community on the island was that of Luis Miguel Llanta, owner of a restaurant in Santa Clara who worked as a drag queen, last October. The murder of the 31-year-old, reported at the time by 14ymedio , was committed by someone with whom he “had an informal relationship” and who sought to “blackmail” him, according to the testimonies collected.

Media reports and independent organizations have recorded that, during the first half of the year, the country recorded 91 murders. To that figure, reported by the NGO Cuba Siglo 21, must be added another 22 homicides recorded in August by Cubalex, in its latest report on this type of cases.
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Cuba’s Tourism Minister Announces That There Will Soon Be ‘Hotels Built by Russians’ on the Island

García Granda admits that the target of 200,000 Russian tourists will not be met this year
Prevention in the Cuban Government, after the long history of unfulfilled promises by the Russians

So far, only the French company Bouygues has been involved in the construction, without ownership, of hotels on the island. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 13 November 2024 — The forecasts have not been met and the Government has publicly admitted that the goal of attracting 200,000 Russian tourists to Cuba will not be met, although the admission came only through the Tass agency, in a brief information released this Tuesday only in Russian. The Island had received 141,615 Russians by September 30, so almost 60,000 more were needed to reach the official objective, a pipe dream, as this newspaper had already warned, as it also pointed out the impossibility of achieving the 2.7 million tourists expected.

Tourism Minister Juan Carlos García Granda postponed the target to 2025 during statements made during his recent visit to Moscow in which he said that there are Russian businesspeople interested in entering the business of building and managing hotels on the island.

“I think we are very close to the fact that the first hotels built by Russian businesspeople will appear in Cuba. In addition, several existing hotels could be transferred to the management of Russian travel companies,” said the minister, who referred to the island’s experience in developing joint ventures, suggesting that this will be the formula if the forecasts are met.

Cautiously, García Granda did not want to talk about the areas of the Island where these projects would be developed, nor give a date or any other clarification. “I will not give details, we will wait until it materializes. But there are already projects in the study phase, which are already close to beginning execution.”

“I won’t give details, we will wait until it materializes. But there are already projects in the study phase, which are already close to beginning execution.” continue reading

After a long history of unfulfilled promises in the short, medium and long term, any precaution is insufficient. Not in vain, in March 2023 there was already talk for the first time of building a hotel specifically focused on Russian tourism. It happened during a visit to Havana by Boris Titov, president of the Cuba-Russia Business Council and the Kremlin’s trusted man, in which several new businesses between both parties were announced, including the opening of a wholesale store.

In November of that year , during the Havana International Fair (Fihav), the information was confirmed and the store was named for the first time, Rusmarket. The same groups would ultimately serve for all types of businesses, a joint venture with the state-owned Cimex that would sell food first and textiles, appliances or cars later. The store had two possible locations, Yumurí (corner of Belascoaín and Carlos III) or Cuatro Caminos, in Havana, and its opening was scheduled for March 2024.

A year later, at the most recent Fihav – suspended halfway due to Hurricane Rafael – the Russian agency Sputnik spoke with Alena Varkentin, director of Rusmarket. She said that a small store in Old Havana, named Florida, will open in March 2025, after the contract was signed in January 2024. In the meantime, the announced shopping center would wait until June or July.

It is one more example of the countless businesses, investments and financial developments that arrive late, badly or never. Other cases include the installation of a branch of the Russian bank Novimbank, which was delayed for more than a year since the approval of the permit; the announced creation of a binational Russian-Cuban bank that has been talked about for several years, or the long wait for the use of Mir cards, announced repeatedly for two years until they arrived.

Other projects were left in limbo, such as the Russian refinery on the Island, of which there has been no news since Jorge Piñón, an expert from the University of Texas, described it as a “fairy tale,” and the much talked about modernization of Cuba’s railway infrastructure by the Russian Railways Union (RZD).

Other projects were left in limbo, such as the Russian refinery on the Island, of which there has been no news since Jorge Piñón, an expert from the University of Texas, described it as a “fairy tale.”

This was one of many projects cancelled in 2020 by the Russians, who made their displeasure known to Havana over what they called a “Cold War mentality that was out of place in post-Soviet Russia.” “They are difficult negotiators, I won’t hide it, the mentality of the past weighs on them constantly,” said Yuri Borisov, then deputy prime minister of Russia and in charge of economic relations with Cuba, in an unforgettable interview.

The railway project was revived this year by the deputy director of RZD, but skepticism haunts any announcement coming from a country that distrusts not only the Cubans’ ability to pay, but also a system in which the law still does not favor private initiative as the Russians claim it does.

The reluctance of Russian businesspeople was made clear last week when, during the FIHAV, Tatiana Mashkova, director of the Committee for Economic Cooperation with Latin American Countries and vice president of the Russia-Cuba Business Council, admitted that until now there is only one Russian company registered in the Mariel Special Development Zone. “This is a challenge and a request to Russian companies: think about the possibilities that Mariel offers,” she encouraged, before speaking of future projects, especially in logistics, although it remains to be seen, once again, whether they materialize.

If the idea of building Russian hotels were to go ahead, it would, however, be a great novelty on the island. To date, only the French company Bouygues had participated in this type of work in Cuba, through joint ventures with the Cuban State, which provides the labor for its military construction company (the Almest real estate company and the Union of Military Constructions), but without ownership of what is built.

Meanwhile, official announcements continue. This Tuesday, the official press announced the creation of a joint training center between the National Research University of Energy Institute of Moscow, of the Russian Federation, and the Electric Union, of Cuba, whose purpose is “to create new capacities to train highly qualified personnel in the energy sector,” which will be of little use as long as the regime fails to retain the professionals.

Also on the island is Alexander Viacheslavovich Kurenkov , the Russian Minister of Emergency Situations, who will meet with senior officials from the Ministry of the Interior and the National Civil Defense General Staff. The Russian arrives with something of the usual, an – unknown – donation for the Cuban Fire Department that follows the one made last year, consisting of 21 firefighting vehicles.

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Silence in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela on the Nomination of Marco Rubio for US Secretary of State

The politician has defended for years the policy of maximum pressure on Cuba and criticized any rapprochement with the Island

“He will be a strong defender of our nation, a true friend of our allies and a brave warrior,” said Trump / EFE

EFE/14ymedio, Washington, 14 November 2024 — “Giving such political scope to a sinister figure, who has caused so much damage, is not a positive omen for the world.” This is how Cuba’s State newspaper Granma commented on Wednesday on the appointment of Marco Rubio as the new Secretary of State for Donald Trump’s Cabinet. More composed, Cubadebate limited itself to exposing the political curriculum of the man who will be the first Cuban-American to occupy that office. The regime’s senior officials, however, remain silent, and other leaders allied with Cuba, such as those of Nicaragua and Venezuela, remain cautious.

Latin America is still wary about the nomination of someone who is expected to increase pressure on the region’s dictatorships, of which he has always been critical. Trump announced on Wednesday the nomination of Rubio, whom he described as “a highly respected leader and a very powerful voice in favor of freedom. He will be a strong defender of our nation, a true friend of our allies and a brave warrior who will never surrender to our adversaries,” Trump said.

Cuba, which has been immersed in a deep economic and energy crisis for four years, faces this change with obvious concern and so far has not commented on Trump’s return to the presidency. In his first term he considerably tightened the sanctions imposed on the regime and included Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. continue reading

To withdraw the sanctions, Rubio calls for changes in the matter of human rights, the freedom of political prisoners and the democratization of the system.

Rubio has defended for years the policy of maximum pressure on Cuba and has criticized any rapprochement with the Island, including the period known as the “thaw,” when diplomatic relations were re-established during the Obama Administration. To withdraw the sanctions, Rubio calls for changes in the matter to human rights, the freedom of political prisoners and the democratization of the Cuban political system. Cuba, for its part, demands respect for national sovereignty and points to human rights problems in the United States.

Rubio has also been a constant critic of the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, whom he accuses of being a dictator, of violating human rights, staying in power through fraud, annulling the opposition and imprisoning his possible rivals. Rubio has called for sanctions and the denial of international loans to that Central American country.

Nicaraguan opponents, such as Arturo McFields and Jaime Arellano, see Rubio’s nomination as a triumph for the fight against Ortega, while others, such as sociologist Javier Meléndez, are skeptical, criticizing the focus on Nicaragua. Guatemalan migration analyst Pedro Pablo Solares tells EFE that Rubio’s nomination “should be seen positively.”

The senator is “a critic of the loss of democracy in the region in countries such as Cuba and Venezuela. Guatemala can take advantage of his diplomacy to maintain the support it has received from the United States in terms of democracy,” he adds.

In the same vein, Celia Medrano, former candidate for the Salvadoran vice presidency for the minority (center-right) party Nuestro Tiempo and an expert on migration issues, tells EFE that with Rubio, the new Trump Administration will be able to “increase pressure against Cuba, Venezuela and to a lesser extent Nicaragua.”

Rubio increases the risk that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be seen in the White House as “a regional enemy”

For Guilherme Casarões, professor of International Politics at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, Rubio, as head of US diplomacy, increases the risk that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be seen in the White House as “a regional enemy” for being aligned with the Latin American left.

“Rubio’s statements and positions as a senator show that he is very attentive to Latin American politics, which he can come to see as a dispute between good and evil.” This vision can lead to a bilateral “lack of political dialogue” and a possible weakening of Brazil at the regional level, he explains to EFE.

The Government of Colombia, which has not yet commented on the appointment, wants to maintain good relations with the United States, based on bipartisanship, but Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Rubio have differences. “Even if you don’t like to say it to our press, Senator Rubio is an expression of the most backward sectors of American politics and has helped to build a violent foreign policy. That policy has killed millions of people in the 21st century,” Petro said in a 2019 tweet, when he was not yet president.

For his part, Rubio has called the president “Gustavo ‘Chávez’ Petro” and has recently criticized his pro-Palestinian position: “It is unfortunate to see that a country as important as Colombia, whose extraordinary people have suffered from terrorist actions, currently has a president who condemns Israel and compares its leaders to Nazis, while justifying and giving his support to Hamas.”

However, for the government of Javier Milei in Argentina, a country that the senator visited in February of this year to meet with the ultra-liberal president, it is good news. During his visit, Rubio was “honored” to be received by Milei, whom he said he had “followed very closely” during his career for the Presidency. Previously, he had described Milei as an ally who must be supported by the United States and urged the Biden Administration to pressure the International Monetary Fund to restructure Argentina’s debt, a central issue for the South American country.

On the other hand, the Republican has been very critical of former Argentina President Cristina Fernández (2007-2015) and last December sent a letter to Biden requesting sanctions against her for being a “convicted kleptocrat” who has favored China and Iran. The Uruguayan Vice Chancellor, Nicolás Albertoni, “looks kindly on the name of Marco Rubio. He has a long parliamentary career in which he has highlighted the importance of the region, and on different occasions he has mentioned the importance of Uruguay as a promoter of values shared with the United States,” he told EFE.

Panama’s Foreign Minister, Javier Martínez-Acha, congratulated Rubio on his nomination and said he hoped to “strengthen” diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The elected governor of Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González, was “proud” of her “dear friend and one of the strongest allies” of the island in Congress. “I have no doubt that with his unwavering commitment to our democratic values, he will continue to promote an agenda that strongly supports our allies and sanctions dictatorial regimes,” she said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Without Running Water for a Year, Las Tunas, Cuba, Receives Relief From New Electric Pumps

In total, the equipment guarantees a delivery of 100 gallons per second to Las Tunas’ main city

A dozen electric pumps were sent to the province / Facebook/INRH Las Tunas

14ymedio, Havana, 14 November 2024 — For at least a year, as described by the official press, the water supply situation has been “one of the most sensitive issues” in Las Tunas. The water pumps in the main city, which for more than two decades were barely maintained, stopped working one by one, affecting thousands of customers. The province has had the equipment to resume service for a month, but it was not until this week that the installation actually began.

Of the 10 electric pumps acquired by the country – the official press does not clarify their origin – and destined for the water treatment plant of the El Rincón reservoir, which mainly supplies the city, only four have been installed. One of these, for lack of a “cable,” did not come into operation immediately either.

In total, the equipment guarantees a “delivery” of 100 gallons per second to the city, out of the 132 gallons promised. But the problem of supply in the province is not reduced to sending water from dams and wells to the water treatment plant and from there to the towns. It involves the repair of the pipes, drains and conductors that limit the arrival of water to homes.

The arrival of the equipment, however, is already giving relief to some residents

This Wednesday, Periódico 26 published an article praising the start of the repair work on a section of “sanitary connections,” whose breakage affects the lives of the 16,460 residents in the Alturas de Buena Vista continue reading

neighborhood, “one of the areas considered vulnerable,” according to the media.

The arrival of the equipment, however, is already giving relief to some residents, whom Periódico 26 did not take long to interview. “The assembly of two electric pumps in the drinking water treatment plant that bring water to this city has caused the population to comment today, among neighbors, on the arrival with sufficient pressure of the essential liquid to different places in the provincial capital,” the media highlighted, quoting a grateful resident in the neighborhood of Aguilera: “It’s great that we now have water.”

The newspaper pointed out that “the obsolescence of the technology that guaranteed, and continues to do so in part, the water supply to Las Tunas made it impossible to respond to the needs of this service in different parts of the city.” In summary, the “total equipment,” which the province has not received since 2007, when “the pumps from [the time of] the Energy Revolution* were replaced” is not enough either.

Hence, Periódico 26 continues, Recursos Hidráulicos will mobilize pipes to move water “to various places, but without covering all the needs for obvious reasons: the limitations with fuel that affect the economy and services in Cuba.”

Work on the facilities has required the intervention of “a specialized brigade”

The work on the facilities that were in “very poor condition” has required the intervention of “a specialized brigade with mechanics, electricians, assemblers and welders,” the authorities explain.

The supply situation in the province was on the verge of collapse since at least November 2023, when, with the reservoirs 75% full, about 90,000 people in Las Tunas did not have running water. A month later, 100,000 people received it by tanker truck and another 6,267 by train. Since then the problem has worsened, but the press was careful when it came to giving the number of people affected or saying how long the water service would take, which in some places was months.

Likewise, the press assures that during this time they have not stopped the delivery of water by tanker truck to the residents, while El Rincón underwent “a comprehensive repair, the most complete since it was inaugurated 25 years ago.” The almost obsolete equipment, which the pumps replaced, would be installed “in other places that are less favored.”

Although the situation of Las Tunas is one of the worst in the country, due to the long period that residents have suffered from the lack of water, the passage of Hurricane Rafael wreaked havoc on the supply systems of the western provinces. Currently in Artemisa, only 59% of the population, including those who receive water by tanker truck, have the service. In Mayabeque there are 11,000 affected, and in Havana, although 79.7% of residents now have service, there are still almost half a million people without supply.

*The Energy Revolution, announced by Fidel Castro in 2005, was a campaign to improve energy efficiency by using renewable resources.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Spanish Choreographer Susana Pous, 25 Years of Farewells to a ‘Desperate’ Cuban Youth

The artist asked the regime to generate “some changes so that the people of Cuba want to live in Cuba”

Pous will close the 13th edition of the Prisma-International Contemporary Dance Festival of Panama her his piece Infinito this weekend. / EFE

Fabio Agrana/EFE (via 14ymedo), Panama City, 19 October 2024 = Spanish choreographer Susana Pous first arrived in Havana, Cuba – her creative universe – 25 years ago (1999) and has felt at home ever since, although she does not hide her concern about the economic problems that are strangling the Island and leading to the “mass exodus” of a “desperate” youth.

In an interview with EFE, the director and choreographer of Mi Compañía said “The mass exodus has been so great in recent years that I have spent my whole life saying goodbye. Yes, and that worries me. Especially because a lot of the population has aged.” This weekend Mi Compañía closes the 13th edition of the Prisma-International Contemporary Dance Festival of Panama with its piece Infinito.

The situation causes concern for Pous (b. Barcelona, 1971) because these young people emigrating are “very desperate, with a lot of hopelessness because they don’t see a future.” However, she clarified that she has a different vision, but that “it is true that economically and in terms of development, Cuba is a bit suffocated.”

The choreographer does not hide her concern about the economic problems that are drowning the Island

She therefore consideres it opportune for the people in charge “to realize a little that despite the real resistance” that the country is experiencing in the face of these difficulties and hardships, “some changes must be made so that the Cuban people want to live in Cuba, because the problem is that people want to leave.”

The Catalan director and choreographer believes that young people are the driving force of a country, but if they are not interested in transforming and decide to leave, “what will happen?”

“That is what I feel. I think there are many things to do, and we all want to transform things in the place where we live, but the only way is by being continue reading

there. Changes are generated through actions,” she said.

Pous, whose creations are nourished by a “very big” imagination and the incorporation of visual arts and contemporary music in her productions, has in Cuba the reality and the present that not only serve as a basis for her work, but also for her activism in campaigns against machismo and violence on the Island.

She confesses that when she arrived in Cuba, it crossed her mind that she “wouldn’t live there, even if she was crazy.”

She admits that when she arrived in Cuba, it crossed her mind that she “wouldn’t live there, even if she was crazy,” but after a year she was still there and has been living in Havana for 25 years now. “There is something that connected me and seduced me, something about the light and the smells that also connects me to my childhood in which perhaps I had a little less music and joy,” she admits.

“It’s not that I’m fascinated by Havana itself and that my works are from Havana, what happens is that since I speak very much from the present and I speak about what surrounds me and what inspires me is what is happening to me, if I’m in Havana, I’m in Havana, and that’s my reality and for me it’s very important,” she said.

Because of this connection and the recognition she has earned on the Island for the level and innovation of her choreographic creations, her image was used in a campaign against gender violence, in a country that, she said, “like everywhere else and in all of Latin America, there is a sexist society.” What surprised her was that when this topic was discussed, people “didn’t know what you were talking about, they didn’t know what gender violence was.”

She regretted that machismo in Cuba is something that is still “very accepted”

Pous points out that this situation around machismo is something that is “still very accepted,” but “people are already starting to talk about it a little bit” and “Cuban society is opening up to, let’s say, raising awareness about this.”

In the island’s creative arts, Susana Pous is praised for her work for incorporating Cuba’s cultural memory into her choreographic projects, with notable works such as ¿Qué se puede esperar cuando se está esperando? [What Can You Expect When You’re Expecting?], Showroom, Welcome, MalSon, and Infinito.

Pous describes the latter, released in 2023, as “a journey of searching” into her interior at a time when she was talking a lot and was inspired by the reality she saw around her.

She recalled that she then realized that “when you begin to travel inward, you begin to understand that there are many things that make up the being that you are that have to do with your ancestors and previous generations.” In this, she noted, “there is a very important connection.” “And that is the original idea or the initial idea of ‘Infinito,’ the point of departure, the starting point,” she remarked.

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At Least 23 People Arrested in Cuba in Protests Over Blackouts

The ’14ymedio’ newsroom in Nuevo Vedado was without electricity for 106 hours.

A police patrol and an unmarked vehicle of the State Security arrived in Nuevo Vedado to silence the neighbors. / 14ymedio

Since that day, it has also registered a total of 68 protests. Of these, 12 took place after Rafael, hit western Cuba, on November 6, giving a total of 14 people detained. The most recent took place in Villa Clara, where at least eight people were arrested in Encrucijada municipality between Thursday and Friday, for a street protest that reached the headquarters of the Assembly of People’s Power.

One of those arrested is José Gabriel Barrenechea Chávez, of whom, according to the legal NGO Cubalex, his family has had no news about his situation since Friday, when he was arrested. The independent journalist, a contributor to 14ymedio, has been harassed and persecuted by the regime since 2019, and which has him “regulado” (on a travel restriction list), preventing him from leaving the country.

In a communiqué published this Sunday, Justicia 11J – which has compiled information on political prisoners since the historic demonstrations of 11 July 2021 – lashes out against the informative note issued by the Attorney General’s Office on Saturday, which justified the “criminal proceedings for crimes of attack, public disorder and damage” carried out against defendants – whose number and names are not specified – for “acts of aggression towards authorities and inspectors of the territories which have caused injuries and disturbances of order”, and who have been remanded in custody.

The Prosecutor’s Office does not refer to the total of 18 detainees in Encrucijada, Camajuaní and Manicaragua.

The US-based organization expresses its concern precisely because the Prosecutor’s Office does not refer to the total of 18 people arrested in Encrucijada, Camajuaní and Manicaragua. In the last of these, six people continue reading

were arrested for demanding they get their electricity supply back during the previous general blackout on October 18. Nor do the authorities refer to the young man arrested in Jimaguayú, Camagüey, for the same reason. The judicial body only vaguely refers to Havana, Mayabeque and Ciego de Avila.

In the records of Justicia 11J, explains the NGO, until now there was no information on arrests in Mayabeque, where a noisy “cacerolaza” (pot-banging) demonstration took place on October 19.

The initiation of these criminal proceedings, denounces Justicia 11J, “is directly related” to Miguel Díaz-Canel’s statements on social networks on October 20, when he stated: “We will not accept nor will we allow anyone to act by provoking vandalism and much less to disturb the tranquility of our people. And this is a conviction and a principle of our Revolution”. With these words, according to the NGO, he made evident “the continuity of the repressive nature against public expressions of discontent in the country”.

In Nuevo Vedado, Havana, where on Friday the neighbors had banged cauldrons for more than 60 hours of blackout, the pans were heard again. Amid the darkness, while other electric circuits around the neighborhood still had power, including the one at the Plaza de la Revolución, residents began a new protest with shouts and banging of spoons, which this time did not go unnoticed by the authorities.

The initiation of these criminal proceedings, claims Justicia 11J, “is directly related” to the statements made by Miguel Díaz-Canel on networks last October 20.

Shortly after the cacerolazo began, a police patrol car and an unmarked State Security vehicle arrived in Nuevo Vedado to silence the residents. In a video filmed from the 14ymedio newsroom, one of the agents and the other car could be seen advancing down the street, where the cauldrons could no longer be heard.

On Sunday around 3:45 p.m. the power briefly returned -it lasted 10 minutes- to the 14ymedio newsroom in Nuevo Vedado, after 103 uninterrupted hours of blackout, and three hours later the service was definitely reestablished.

Justicia 11J had denounced other arbitrary detentions in the town of El Eucalipto in the municipality of Ciro Redondo, in Ciego de Avila, where last Thursday the inhabitants took to the streets with cauldrons and chanting “put the current on” in protest for more than 24 hours without electricity.

One day after this protest, Adiane Hernández Calderón, Yordanka López González and Diosbany Almaguer were arrested for the crime of “public disorder” and transferred to the prison in Ciego de Ávila. However, the NGO protested that these persons “did not even participate in the protest” but the authorities labelled them as “promoters” because “they were photographed by government officials while they were observing the demonstration”.

In the Barreras neighborhood of Guanabacoa, Havana, Deisy Romero and her daughter, Yudeisis Diaz Romero, Keren Probance, Xiomara Llanes Armas and her daughter Aylet Maria Piñeiro Llanes and Rusbel Machado Perez were summoned after a protest over blackouts on Saturday night.

Justicia 11J stated that Llanes Armas and her daughter must appear this Sunday at Police unit 14. It also pointed out that Llanes Armas was “assaulted by Major Pavón (who signed the summons), while he was trying to snatch the percussion utensil [cauldron] that she took to the cacerolazo”. The woman has acute post-traumatic bursitis and muscular contusion, it concluded.

Translated by GH

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By Increasing Housing Prices Fivefold, the Cuban State Is Repealing a Key Norm of Socialism

The fair rule that determined the price based on the buyer’s salary disappears

Many of the houses being sold today are the same ones that were acquired under the just rules of socialism. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, 13 November 2024 — The abandonment of the so-called fundamental laws of the socialist system in the Cuban model is something that has not been officially proclaimed, although it was slyly suggested in 1994 when the Special Period in Times of Peace was proclaimed, when it was necessary to appeal to the rules of the market “to save the conquests of the Revolution.”

The latest evidence that the publicized aspirations to establish real socialism on this Island are irrational and unviable is becoming clear after the publication in the Official Gazette of Resolution 313 of 2024, which will come into force on November 15.

The regulation issued by the Ministry of Finance establishes new minimum reference values for the liquidation and payment of taxes on personal income and on the transfer of property and inheritance, associated with acts of purchase and sale and donation of homes between natural persons.

These new reference values are five times higher than those established by this Ministry in March 2017 when it issued Resolution 112, which has now been repealed.

One of the reasons given in the document for carrying out this update is that it is necessary “given the current economic and social conditions.”

It is paradoxical that a government that requires private traders to reduce the price of their goods because it considers them excessive, then forces individuals to increase the price of the houses they sell fivefold with the sole purpose of increasing taxes.

Our lack of infrastructure and knowledge was balanced by belonging to a bloc where the weakest was worth as much as the strongest.

Let us go back to the time when there was still the illusion, or at least we were given the illusion, that “through a fair exchange between developed and underdeveloped nations” it was possible to achieve a socialist utopia. Our lack of infrastructure and knowledge was balanced by belonging to a bloc where the weakest was worth as much as the strongest.

We are talking about 1985. In May of that year the price I paid for the three-bedroom apartment that I still occupy was 4,200 pesos. Thus I stopped being a usufructuary who paid rent to become the owner who bought his home from a welfare state.

My salary was then 350 pesos per month and the cost of my house was calculated according to Law 65, in force since July 1985, based on the fact that I paid a monthly rent equivalent to 10% of my salary, or 35 pesos, and this figure was multiplied by 120 months, which in 20 years resulted in 4,200. If my salary had been the average for that year (188 pesos), then the price of my house would have been 2,280 pesos.

Almost 40 years have passed and the numbers must have obviously changed, but what was not supposed to change was the method for calculating housing prices, which was supposedly based on helping workers to buy a house.

If we do a reverse calculation with these elements, seeing that the reference price of my house, according to the aforementioned Resolution 313, is today 1,080,000, we can calculate that (if the same method of 1985 were maintained to calculate the prices of the houses) I would have paid for 20 years a monthly payment of 9,000 pesos, which is supposed to be 10% of a salary of 90,000. But it happens that the average salary in Cuba today is 4,648 Cuban pesos, which is 5% of this salary chimera of 90,000.

What kind of Cuban citizen were those who drafted this Resolution thinking of?

So one wonders: What kind of Cuban citizen were those who drafted this Resolution thinking of? Is the only reason for imposing an unattainable minimum price on housing mandatory to increase the amount collected through taxes?

The point is that the mere existence of “current economic and social conditions,” which the Resolution invokes to justify the new mandatory reference prices as a minimum for any purchase and sale transaction, are the denial of a deceased, though unburied, model.

I have no idea where the abandoned “socialist” formula of multiplying 10% of the salary by 120 months without including the real cost of producing a house came from; in the same way it is difficult to understand the reason why the State multiplies by five the “reference value” of a house that it neither built nor maintained.

This tedious play has been on stage for too long without any sign of renewal.

Many of the houses sold today are the same ones that were purchased under the just rules of socialism, but the most paradoxical thing is that the new officially established prices do not even come close to the very high prices imposed by abusive reality.

The illusion of a just method has vanished, as it is impractical and costly, but in the political theatre the bosses continue to play the role of providers of benefits who deserve meekness in gratitude.

This tedious play has been on stage for too long without any sign of renewal. Every day the make-up is falling off, the scenery is cracking, the script is boring and the actors are not convincing. The applause has died down for a some time now and the booing has already begun.

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Desolate Panorama in the Artemisa Provincial Hospital After Hurricane Rafael

The Ciro Redondo Hospital was in terrible condition long before, without running water and with leaks

The images of broken windows, wet beds and flooded floors in the Ciro Redondo Hospital were among the first to be known / Telecenter ARTV

14ymedio, Havana, November 12, 2024 — During the passage of Hurricane Rafael through Artemisa, the Ciro Redondo García Provincial Hospital had to transfer three people on ventilators, pregnant women and other patients to safer rooms, since the rain and winds caused damage to the roof and broken glass, especially on the fourth floor. The center also has serious problems with leaks and the water supply, but these, the official press itself recognizes, are “long-standing.”

A report published this Tuesday in the local media El Artemiseño gives an account of the damage: the hurricane “caused broken glass and rendered one cubicle useless” in the therapy unit; “significant effects were detected in false ceilings,” and there were “collapses in the medical services unit and the maternity ward,” Dr. Guianeya Encinosa Moreno, deputy director of Medical Assistance, tells the newspaper.

El Artemiseño defines as “bleak” the panorama, which, it says, shortly after the disaster some users were already sharing on social networks. However, “there were those who speculated about the lives of the hospitalized patients,” and it clarifies that no one was in danger.

Indeed, the images of broken windows, doors torn from frames, wet beds and flooded floors in the Ciro Redondo were among the first be shown on the networks. In fact, according to official data, in the province there are 119 public health centers affected in 11 municipalities. Most have damage to the roofs and carpentry, although “raised water tanks in 14 centers” were lost, and there are ” breakdowns in two generators and two ambulances, in continue reading

addition to damage to electrical and air conditioning systems.”

The media applauds the fact that, a few days after Rafael damaged the hospital, the authorities are already planning to “revitalize” the wards

But the media applauds that, a few days after Rafael damaged the hospital, the authorities are already planning to “revitalize” the hemodialysis, imaging and emergency wards, in addition to replacing the waterproof covering of the roof and repairing the glass and aluminum.

However, the hope that the problems of access to running water would also be solved was dashed by Yanelis Amador Borrego, director of Public Health in the province, who explained that this presents “a greater difficulty.” “The hydraulic networks are obstructed by a layer of thick magnesium. This matter requires the analysis of the source of supply and an important investment,” she said.

Not even El Artemiseño understands how a hospital can continue to function when water cannot reach the wards for surgery, maternity care, sterilization, neonatology, perinatal care and hemodialysis.

Water shortages even put the patients at risk. “One of the wards has been closed for months, due to the poor state of the water system, and the maternal critical care ward was closed years ago. If we get a situation like this today, we have to put the patient in one of the four beds that we have left, which represents a very high risk of cross-infections,” confesses nurse Rayma Reinoso Cruz.

Not even the bathrooms, says the media, “have a drop of running water for cleaning,” which “leaves a lot to be desired”

Not even the bathrooms, says the media, “have a drop of running water for cleaning,” which “leaves a lot to be desired.” The same happens with the hygiene of utensils and the patients themselves “for which they use water stored in a container!” the newspaper points out with an exclamation mark as if the problem of hygiene in Cuban hospitals was exclusive to Ciro Redondo.

The repair work, which will begin in the therapy room, which filters water to the hemodialysis unit, will require the hospital to reorganize some of its facilities to make way for the “workers of the 53rd brigade of the Comprehensive Construction Company of Havana” and another brigade from Pinar del Río. Forces specialized in the repair of windows and glass will also intervene, including the Mariel Architecture and Engineering Projects Company.

“We plan to place therapy where the intensive care unit is today. In turn, it will move to the surgery observation area. At the moment we have not thought about sending patients to other hospitals, beyond a specific case, due to the damage that several workers suffered in their own homes,” adds the deputy director of Medical Assistance.

Repair work will also be done in other centers, such as the intensive care unit of the José Ramón Martínez Álvarez Pediatric Hospital in Guanajay. “Here we also need to waterproof the roof and recover the hydraulic connections. Also, the carpentry in the hospitalization ward and its bathroom is in danger of collapse,” listed Yanelis Amador Borrego, director of Public Health.

“Everything that is done in the Ciro Redondo García has to be durable,” demands El Artemiseño, which, in case any reader confuses the expression with a promise, gives a caveat: “It will not be a capital investment, which the hospital needs.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Who Pays the Salary of Cuban Doctors in Honduras?”

A group of 96 Cuban doctors arrived in Honduras last February / Government of Honduras

14ymedio, Havana, November 12, 2024 — The Secretariat of Strategic Planning of Honduras, the entity in charge of hiring 96 Cuban doctors to provide services in that country, “does not maintain an employment relationship” with the specialists, nor has it “made payments through its payroll.” The information appears in two official memoranda to which the newspapers El Heraldo and La Prensa had access, and which reveal irregularities in the process of hiring doctors.

“If it is not the Secretariat of Planning, how are the salaries of Cuban doctors being covered?” both media ask. The health officials of the Government of Xiomara Castro, an ally of Havana, remain silent.

El Heraldo and La Prensa also claim that Cuban doctors now occupy management positions and are “hostile people,” according to interviews they have conducted with Honduran health personnel, their subordinates.

The Honduran Minister of Health, Carla Paredes, explained last February that she was in charge of signing the agreement with Cuba for the specialists, valid for two years. With this she has tried to alleviate the crisis of the Honduran health system, which lacks medical and technical personnel, medicines and safe facilities. She said that the Secretariat would take care of everything related to the specialists. continue reading

Paredes has not clarified the source of the 1,000 dollars, which, as reported last May by the Cuban ambassador to Honduras, Juan Roberto Loforte, is the agreed payment for each specialist for eight hours a day of service in the main hospitals of the country. For its part, the Medical College of Honduras, which has spoken out against the hiring of the Cuban medical brigade, says that the Honduran Government pays 2,000 dollars a month to the Island for each doctor, in addition to guaranteeing them a house, vehicle and food.

For every Cuban doctor in Honduras, the Island receives 1,000 dollars a month / Government of Honduras

The group, made up of surgeons, orthopedists, neurosurgeons, vascular surgeons, oncologists, internists, psychiatrists, epidemiologists, family and geriatric doctors, has been in Honduras for eight months. Using Loforte’s figures, Cuba has thus received 768,000 dollars.

The presence of Cuban doctors in Honduras began in 1998, after the passage of Hurricane Mitch. During that time, according to Loforte, they have attended 29 million consultations and 69,000 eye surgeries within the Operation Miracle program.

As part of its relationship with the Island, the Government of Honduras also agreed to send 170 general practitioners to the Island to train in one of the 23 specialties offered by Cuban universities. This scholarship program, the diplomat added, is similar to the one that his government also has with other countries such as Mexico, and for which it pays Cuba 1,209,950 dollars a month.

The Medical Association of Honduras has insisted that the hiring of Cuban doctors not only violates the Constitution but also could be facilitating the entry of Cuban soldiers into the country, as claimed by the Madrid-based organization Prisoners Defenders. Its director, Javier Larrondo, said in August 2022 that there were “State Security agents” among the first group of 641 doctors from Cuba that arrived in Mexico.

Prisoners Defenders has repeatedly accused Mexico, Italy and Qatar of promoting and being complicit in the slavery of Cuban doctors, one of the main sources of hard currency for the Cuban regime.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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With 74 Percent of Buses out of Service, Public Transport in Ciego De Ávila, Cuba, Remains at a Minimum

The provincial authorities have left passenger transport in the background to focus on “covering vital services”

Four eggs (including an unusually large one, lower right) hatched into five chicks—a first report for Eastern Bluebirds. Photo by Gerald Clark.

14ymedio, Havana, November 12, 2024 — Ciego de Ávila’s transportation plan will have completed three consecutive years in 2024 without even approaching half of what was planned. At the end of October, according to a text published this Sunday in the official media Invasor, the Provincial Transport Company (EPT) has barely reached 27% of the goal of 18,000,000 passengers that it set out to carry this year.

In 2023, it only managed to transport 5,600,000 of the 14,000,000 passengers it had planned, while 2022 was even worse and did not achieve more than a third: 7,000,000 of 21,000,000. The director of the EPT, Vidal López Más, attributed the poor numbers to the “obstacles to overcome” posed by the “two big challenges”: the fuel deficit and the “low coefficient of technical availability”; that is, the number of vehicles available for service.

Only 26% of public buses are available in the province. Many of the vehicles have deteriorated “from the absence of components that are part of the operating cost, mainly tires and batteries. We lost the large vehicles; we only have the “dianas” (minibuses), which have shorter routes,” the official admits.

Many of the vehicles have deteriorated “from the absence of components that are part of the operating cost of transport”

With these shortcomings, the company fails to cover even half of the routes it has scheduled, since it barely serves 57 of the 135 in the province. “However, compared to the end of July, we managed to activate 11, based on a new strategy in the design, and we managed to incorporate eight buses,” highlights López Más.

With the small working fleet, the company has had to remove parts of from the vehicles that are out of service. The official points out “the innovative capacity” of the drivers for these tasks: “They have moved continue reading

tires to a bus in operation from one that is paralyzed for the long term. They have also changed batteries this way, and solutions like this are being sought. In any case, these advances are insignificant in the face of the demand that is still not met.”

The limitations experienced in Ciego de Ávila have forced the authorities to leave passenger transport in the background to focus on “covering vital services and others of great importance: transportation of patients with medical appointments, health personnel for provincial hospitals, students from the universities of Villa Clara and Camagüey and funeral flet.”

For cargo, the availability of vehicles reaches 42%, but there is another problem: they lack fuel

For cargo, the availability of vehicles reaches 42%, but there is another problem: they lack fuel. To try to solve that issue, says the company, “the leased vehicles have been very useful for the massive distribution of flour and the standardized family basket to the ration stores of the 10 municipalities.” However, they cannot use half the available transportation either, because, although there are more than 85 leased vehicles, 50% “are still in the process of repair or legal processing.”

The company cannot import the resources it needs to reincorporate more vehicles. López Más points out that, “like all transport companies in the country,” the one in Ciego de Ávila “has a development fund enabled in the Ministry of Transport.” Therefore, they can only wait, although practically nothing arrives. “So far in 2024, we have received only one delivery with an insignificant amount of tires and batteries,” he reproaches.

“So far in 2024, we have received only one delivery with an insignificant amount of tires and batteries”

Although Ciego de Ávila has not been directly affected by the latest natural phenomena that hit Cuba – hurricanes Oscar and Rafael, and earthquakes and floods in the east – there was also “a temporary suspension of almost all services offered by the EPT,” although the company did support the need for some funeral services and “certain trips of interest from the highest authorities of the territory.”

Another challenge facing transport in Ciego de Ávila is the state of roads. The same media published that, “in mid-2023, 75% of the roads of interest, both municipal and provincial, were in regular or poor condition.” At the national level it is the same diagnosis. In July of last year, the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, indicated that 75% of the country’s roads are in regular or poor condition, a figure that has been maintained at least since 2019, when it increased by 15% compared to the previous year.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Closure of Numerous Museums in Cuba Reflects the Cultural Defeat of the Regime

In Ciego de Ávila, half of the 13 provincial institutions are closed

The Provincial Museum of Ciego de Ávila is one of the few that have “material help” from the Government / Invasor

14ymedio, Havana, November 10, 2024 — Facilities in terrible condition, partial collapses and pieces stored in “dusty boxes” define the situation of museums in Cuba. The worst part is experienced by the provincial institutions, closed most of the day and without conditions to preserve the past. It is a “defeat for society” that ahe official provincial newspaper Invasor recently illustrated with a fact that “impresses and saddens”: of the 13 museums that Ciego de Ávila has, half are closed.

Invasor dedicated its weekly cultural supplement to exploring the museological debacle in the province. The photos of chipped and cracked walls are eloquent. The testimonies of the employees, even more so. Critical of the management of the local government, Doralis Nuez González, director of the Provincial Heritage Center, reminded the authorities that they had to assume “more strongly their responsibility” for the deterioration, because they are obliged, in fact, by the General Law on the Protection of Heritage.

Nuez González warned about the imminent loss of collections several centuries old. He asked for resources so that the pieces – especially the documents, more fragile – receive “a correct preventive conservation.” “Paper, even when we take all precautions, can be exposed to dust, moisture and the growth of fungi. A closed place, far from helping, damages the cultural heritage that we will bequeath to our children and grandchildren,” he lamented.

On the other hand, archaeological objects – which are not lacking in Ciego de Ávila, because it contains abundant aboriginal sites – need “optimal control of temperature and humidity,” which is achieved with equipment continue reading

and substances that are lacking.

In Ciro Redondo the problem is the building, whose “constructive state” leaves much to be desired

Of the 13 museums in the province, four are completely closed – Decorative Arts, the municipal ones of Majagua and Bolivia, and the important Museum-Site Los Buchillones, in Chambas – and two partially: those of Florencia and Ciro Redondo. The closures have “various causes.” In Majagua there is no staff, and they have alleged a “redesign of the project.” In Ciro Redondo the problem is the building, whose “constructive state” leaves much to be desired.

In Florencia there is an effort to open some museums, but the progress is “progressive.” Decorative Arts, Bolivia and Los Buchillones have the same flaw: the seepage that, after each downpour, leaves the ceiling full of leaks and a “humid environment” that has damaged the pieces.

The situation of Decorative Arts is one of the most serious, and its director, Celia Marrero, implores the Government to rescue it. “I hope they approve the investment we need and that the doors of the museum open as soon as possible, but as of today we have no certainty of being able to achieve it next year. It is most likely that we will not get help even for the carpentry,” she explains.

In the Bolivia, due to leaks, they have had to store everything in “boxes and suitcases.” “The local authorities are aware of this situation, but they tell us that there is no money for the work,” complains the director of the municipal museum, Zuleidys Álvarez.

The small museum of Los Buchillones was very affected after the passage of Hurricane Irma in 2017. The local Communist Party has been interested in the situation because there is much at stake: the hundreds of valuable pieces of aboriginal wood that Canadian scholars are in the process of studying and classifying, whose loss would be catastrophic for the state of Taíno studies worldwide.

The pieces were better preserved “in the sulfurous mud of the beach, which protected them naturally for centuries”

The pieces were better preserved “in the sulfurous mud of the beach, which protected them naturally for centuries,” than in the dilapidated museum, admits the PCC. “Seven years after the hurricane, the valuable aboriginal collections are still in boxes, without the necessary materials to finish this work and return the museum to its functionality,” Invasor regrets.

The director of Culture of Chambas even asked the Ministry of Tourism to “get involved in this matter and resurrect Los Buchillones” with a view to bringing tourists to its facilities. However, the newspaper points out, even if such an investment occurs, it will also be necessary to deal with another “headache”: the municipal museum of Chambas, almost in collapse and about to close.

“Why don’t we finish repairing it? Mostly, due to a lack of materials, but I also think that there has been a lack of more commitment on the part of other agencies in charge. Culture, with its scarce resources, cannot solve everything,” said the official.

Invasor does not blame the authorities for the situation. Washing their hands of it is, “to a certain extent, understandable,” due to the crisis which Cuba is living through. “Where can they get money, materials or labor, in the midst of so many shortages? If the housing deficit persists in Ciego de Ávila, how can they prioritize places where no one will live?” the article asks. But a paragraph later, it qualifies: without museums the “cultural decolonization” that, taking former minister Abel Prieto as a guru, the Government has launched will not be possible.

The newspaper also dedicated an editorial to the situation of museums, in addition to an interview with Lizette Pérez Sánchez, specialist at the Provincial Museum. Graduated in Marxism and an unconditional adherent of the Communist Party, Pérez has no complaints: the local government, she says, gives a “material contribution” to the institution, privileged in a context of cultural helplessness.

The precariousness of Cuban museums has been denounced on multiple occasions

The precariousness of Cuban museums has been denounced on multiple occasions. Several weeks ago, the Matanzas Art Museum suffered a collapse of its roof, according to the local press. At that time, the museology specialist of the institution, Jenny Páez, regretted the incident and said that it occurred due to the “silence and delinquency of some entities responsible for ensuring its conservation.”

At the beginning of the year, the National Heritage Council informed the Minister of Culture that in Cuba there were 64 museums closed and another 61 monuments in danger of collapse, due to the “deficit of equipment, materials and investments for their conservation and restoration.” Although there has been no update, it is expected that the figures have increased.

Last February, when 14ymedio visited the Cerro Museum in Havana, the panorama was unfortunate. With grass and vines growing on its facade, there were hardly any remains of the yellow ribbon with which the police warned that the place was impassable. On the double staircase of the building, someone drew a word that serves as an alert for any Cuban cultural institution: “Danger.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Artemisa and Pinar Del Río, Cuba, Are Still Without Electricity, Havana Has Just 15 Percent, While the East Is Better

In Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución district, neighbors have been without electricity for more than 50 hours

The luckiest take advantage of the sun this Friday to charge their generators with solar panels / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 8 November 2024 — Two days after the impact of Hurricane Rafael in western Cuba and the consequent total collapse of the national energy system (SEN), there are still populated areas of the Island without power. Artemisa and Pinar del Río, the provinces most affected by the hurricane, have not even been able to connect. In most localities they barely have internet or cell phone service.

“They have not even been able to leave their block due to the amount of branches, tiles and other objects that are lying everywhere,” says a Cuban from Alquízar who has now emigrated to the United States and has learned about his relatives through a friend who was able to find a place where he had a little signal. “The neighbors are taking care of the damage, without electricity and water. No agency or official has yet passed by to evaluate damage or distribute food,” he said early this Friday.

Alquízar is one of the places that Miguel Díaz-Canel later visited. There, the president said, “the people work intensely without neglecting the recovery of their community.”

The rest of the provinces, according to the Director of Electricity of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Lázaro Guerra Hernández, “are interconnected to the SEN,” although this does not mean restoration of the electrical service either. In Havana, the official continued, “there are several circuits that are affected by the passage of the hurricane, and in the rest of the country, the effects are due to the generation deficit.” continue reading

A total of 90 electricity poles collapsed in Havana as the hurricane passed, including 30 in Cerro and Plaza de la Revolución

According to the Havana Electric Company, it has barely been possible to serve 50 primary distribution circuits of the 337 existing in the capital, as well as eight hospital circuits and two water supply circuits. “We are at 15.1% recovery,” the authorities acknowledged.

A total of 90 electricity poles collapsed in Havana as the hurricane passed, including 30 in Cerro and Plaza de la Revolución. In this last municipality, where the newsroom of 14ymedio is located, residents have been without electricity since Wednesday around 8:30 am, more than 50 hours. The luckiest take advantage of the sun this Friday to charge their generators with solar panels.

In other areas, such as Holguín, they breathe a sigh of relief because “the blackout did not last as long as before,” according to a neighbor, referring to the previous system crash on October 18. Although there are still municipalities in that eastern province without electricity, power was returned to the city of Holguín on Thursday afternoon. “What is a crime is that they are taking advantage of the situation to sell coal for 2,000 pesos,” laments the same source. “We are on the verge of collapse.”

A comment on the networks of the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (UNE) expressed the mood: “We have suffered 10 days of hell, without help from the West, with 15 to 24 hours of daily blackouts. Hopefully we will have a few days of peace and power in eastern Cuba.”

From Sancti Spíritus, a collaborator of this newspaper reports that the service “is stabilizing”: there is electricity for two, four or five hours, but “without planning.”

This map from the official press illustrates the “recovery of the SEN” this Friday / Cubadebate

Regarding the thermoelectric power plants, Guerra Hernández reported: “Guiteras [Matanzas] is in service; a unit of the Felton [Holguín] is online; two units in Nuevitas [Camagüey]; unit number three of Santa Cruz del Norte [Mayabeque]; and today we must start unit number 1 and that of Renté [Santiago de Cuba]. The engines of Moa [Holguín] are in service, and the generation capacity will increase. It may also be possible to increase generation in Havana’s floating power plants.”

The map with which the official press illustrates the “recovery of the SEN” corroborates that the Máximo Gómez thermoelectric plant in Mariel, the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in Cienfuegos and the Renté still do not work. Two floating power plants are also turned off: Mariel and Santiago de Cuba, which run on fuel.

Thus, the implementation of “microsystems” or “energy islands” is vital. The first one that managed to establish itself this Thursday after the passage of Rafael was that of Matanzas, thanks to Energás Varadero. It is an electric plant with a generation capacity of 173 megawatts (MW), one of the three operated on the Island by the Canadian company Sherritt International in association with the UNE.

As William Pitt, heir to several mines expropriated by Fidel Castro in 1960 and analyst of the regime’s mining businesses observes, the power plants of Sherritt “are probably the best maintained,” in addition to being “very important for Cuba,” since they supply electricity for the most important tourist center of the country, Varadero, and to several parts of Havana, as well as supplying natural gas that is sent by pipeline to the capital.

Cuba pays Sherritt with cobalt for the work done by Energás in Varadero and the other two power plants

“That Varadero plant uses the oil and gas produced by the oil wells that Sherritt operates north of Cárdenas and southwest of Varadero,” Pitt continues. “Cuba has no money to pay Sherritt for those services, and that is why Cuba, instead of a monetary payment, has granted Sherritt the right to extract and take possession, without having to pay the Government, of nickel and cobalt ore from the mines that Sherritt operates in Moa (which include my family’s mines),” he says.

That is, Cuba pays Sherritt with cobalt for the work it does in Energás in Varadero and in the other two power plants that operate in Puerto Escondido, with 20 MW, and in Boca de Jaruco, with 313 MW.

The circumstances make fuel supplies from abroad more vital than ever. The Ocean Mariner tanker, from the Mexican port of Tampico and loaded with crude oil from that country, managed to dock in Santiago de Cuba on Tuesday, before the impact of Hurricane Rafael. The cargo of the ship Alicia, which left the port of José, in Venezuela, is also expected on Tuesday. The oil tankers, the University of Texas specialist Jorge Piñón explained to this newspaper, were sheltered in anticipation of Rafael, but are now on the move again. The Vilma left Cienfuegos and is back in the port of Pajaritos-Coatzacoalcos, in Mexico.

The UNE has not published its daily report for two days, but it is almost not necessary. Cubans assume that at least until Sunday the “normality” of the scheduled blackouts will not return.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A US NGO Friendly to Cuban Regime Donates 100 Electric Generators to Cuba

The generators run on oil or propane, so they are not practical in the midst of the fuel crisis.

Unloading the equipment donated by The People’s Forum / X/Miguel Díaz-Canel

14ymedio, Havana, 10 November 12024 — The US organization The People’s Forum has donated 100 electric generators to Cuba that, according to Miguel Díaz-Canel, will be destined for “hospitals, polyclinics and other public service institutions in Guantánamo, Artemisa, Mayabeque and Havana.” The president thanked the NGO that since the passage of Hurricane Oscar in October has managed to raise 250,000 dollars in three weeks to buy aid for the Island.

Díaz-Canel published photos of the generators being unloaded from a plane, thanks to the “solidarity of the American people.” The generators, of the Firman brand, have an approximate value of 1,400 dollars each (140,000 dollars in total) and run on oil and propane, which makes them impractical in the midst of the hydrocarbon deficit that the Island suffers.

“The most recent shipment contains 54 generators that will be sent to the areas affected by Hurricane Rafael. So far, this campaign has delivered more than 100 electric generators and more than 60,000 pounds of food, providing vital relief at a time when Cuba was in need due to a general blackout followed by two hurricanes in just two weeks,” said The People’s Forum in a statement.

The NGO denounced the “triple threat” posed to Cubans by the blackouts, hurricanes and the “blockade”

The NGO – which has called its campaign “Let Cuba Live” – denounced the “triple threat” posed to Cubans by the blackouts, hurricanes and the “blockade of the United States,” and called on Joe Biden’s Administration to use “the time it has left” to avoid new sanctions by President-elect Donald continue reading

Trump and remove Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

Last October, after the first total blackout, Washington said it did not rule out providing aid to the Island but specified that Havana had not requested assistance. “We are concerned about the possible humanitarian impact on the Cuban people. As we have seen in recent years, Cuba’s economic conditions, derived from prolonged mismanagement of its policies and resources, have undoubtedly increased the difficulties of the Cuban population,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time.

Cuba has received other aid from allied countries in recent weeks, including a credit of 60 million dollars from Russia to acquire 80,000 tons of oil and another two million to buy equipment and tools to repair the National Energy System (SEN). Mexico also promised to deliver fuel as part of humanitarian aid, and both the UN – which will use 33 million dollars to help the victims in Guantánamo – and the European Union promised to provide assistance.

The Regional Logistics Center for Humanitarian Assistance, located in Panama, will also send 108 tons of aid

The Regional Logistics Center for Humanitarian Assistance, located in Panama, will also send 108 tons of humanitarian aid, including medicines and hygiene supplies, to assist those affected by Hurricane Oscar. “This Sunday, November 10, the first two of four trips will transfer 108 tons of humanitarian assistance to Cuba to meet the needs of those affected by Hurricane Oscar, which made landfall on October 19,” stated the Panamanian Ministry of Government.

The director of the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depository, Francisco Quesada, indicated that “thanks to the support of the Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Service (ECHO) of the European Commission, which collaborates with more than 200 associated organizations, supplies will be transferred. Water tanks of 5,000 and 10,000 liters, tents for families, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, kitchen kits, tool kits and everything necessary to respond to the needs caused by the rains produced by the atmospheric phenomenon will be sent to Cuba.”

Despite international assistance, the SEN gives slow and unstable signs of recovery. According to the latest Cubadebate report, only half of Havana’s 12 supply sources are in operation, and 83.7% of hospitals.

As for the population, according to the report of the Electric Union, 85% of Havana’s circuits have been recovered

As for the population, according to the report of the Electric Union (UNE) 85% of Havana’s circuits have been recovered, but 14ymedio has confirmed that many residents are still without electricity. In the statement issued by the UNE, 750 megawatts of deficit are forecast for this Sunday.

Pinar del Río, although it did not suffer great damage after the passage of Rafael, remains isolated from the SEN because the ruptures and ravages of the hurricane in Artemisa prevent the energy generated in the center of the country from being connected to that province, explained Lázaro Guerra, director of the Ministry of Energy and Mines. At the moment, “we are working with the province’s own microsystems. On Saturday, Artemisa did not have electrical service,” he added.

This territory was the most affected by the hurricane, and this Sunday, only “three small microsystems” are generating current “in Bahía Honda, Bauta and Güira de Melena.” In total, they serve only 2,294 customers, 1.12% of the province’s population, Guerra said. According to the manager, “from Matanzas to Guantánamo” the rest of the SEN is connected.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘I Have Spent Almost a Thousand Pesos and I Don’t Have Enough Food for a Week,’ Laments a Retired Woman From Cienfuegos, Cuba

At the Calzada de Dolores fair, which is held on Saturdays, it is becoming more and more expensive to pay for the few products that there are.

A positive attribute of the fair is having the concentration of products in one place, residents believe. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 11 November 2024 — On Calzada de Dolores two parallel fairs coexist every Saturday. One is for those who have the required licenses to sell. The other is for those who, without a license, have all kinds of food, toiletries or even jewelry. Both have one thing in common: the prices scare off the people of Cienfuegos who come looking for affordable variety and acceptable quality. It is normal to have to turn around.

“I wanted to be here at 7:00 in the morning, but the lack of public transport prevented me,” says Fermin, a resident who came looking for a good deal and is about to leave disappointed. “There is only a little bit of junk left, corn flour and some jams that the MSMEs bring to sell. There is more soda and beer than is really necessary to feed a household. Anyone who sees so many people would think that there is a wide range of products, but most of the town leaves empty-handed, or carrying a small bag with only two or three things,” he says.

The trucks parked in the middle of the street give the impression of an abundance that exists only in official propaganda, which punctually announces the Saturday event. Fermín notes that nothing is further from the truth, but the little that there is is not enough for pockets like his. With a monthly salary of 3,200 pesos, the Cienfuegos resident must juggle to get food every day.

Trucks parked in the middle of the street give the impression of an abundance that exists only in official propaganda. / 14ymedio

“The positive thing about this fair is the concentration of products in one place, because, with rare exceptions, the cost of purchases is the same as in other places. I’m craving a bean stew and I’ll have to wait a while, because there isn’t any. The most I can do is buy a small pot of chili peppers for 60 pesos, until the rest appears,” the man admits.

If it is difficult for him, it is worse for Carmen, a 69-year-old retiree whose pension has only covered two cucumbers, a handful of bananas, a pound of malangas and three pounds of rice. “I have spent almost a thousand pesos and I can categorically say that I am not guaranteed food for even a week. To top it off, you have to be very attentive to the weighing because, at the slightest carelessness, they steal without mercy. It is an abuse they have with the population, especially with those of us who have dedicated ourselves for decades to working for this system, which has ended up being a total debacle,” she admits.

Among the stalls you can find a pound of pork for 700 pesos, or a liter of oil for the same amount. Both are highly sought-after products, but at these prices it is almost impossible for many to buy them. “They can put whatever they want on sale, but if everything continues to be so expensive we will not solve anything. I have been here since dawn, waiting for some sales to spend less overall, but if I don’t hurry I will go home the same way I came,” laments Carmen.

The vendors display their merchandise in plastic boxes, wooden shelves, tents or on the ground itself, but they never take their eyes off the inspectors, who wait for the opportunity to fine anyone who fails to comply with the price limits decreed by municipal governments, a measure that can be as strict as it is avoidable, depending on how willing the official is to be corrupted.

“They make money at the expense of others’ sacrifices. They impose fines of up to 10,000 pesos for anything they can think of, supposedly in compliance with the law. They demand a lot of documentation, a lot of hygiene, a lot of legality. However, I see them turning a blind eye to some individuals who have bought them. That is the truth,” says Arquímedes, a small farmer living in the municipality of Abreus, who is calling for the sector to be liberalized.

“They should remove all bureaucratic obstacles, which are only useful for wasting time and resources. There is no need for Acopio [the State Procurement and Distribution Agency] or any other entity. If they sold us everything we need to work the land, if they allowed us to sell first-hand and stopped treating us as if we were thieves, the supply would increase rapidly,” the farmer believes.

If you wait too long for offers, you risk returning home with nothing. / 14ymedio

The price caps in agricultural markets, a provincial jurisdiction according to decree 30/2021, are, together with the cap imposed on MSMEs for six basic products since July, the two mechanisms that, according to economists, producers and private individuals, are limiting supply. The Vice Minister of Finance and Prices, Lourdes Rodríguez Ruiz, said this Saturday that since July the Government has collected more than 600 million pesos nationwide under these regulations.

“Any act in which the price of a product sold to the population is violated, agreed upon by the State, affects the people. Our job is to maintain the established price and quality,” he argued. The result, however, is not the desired one, even though the law regulating agricultural markets has been in place for more than three years. The recipe, together with other government decisions and the general crisis affecting the country, has only resulted in the reduction of supply.

“The situation is getting tighter for ordinary people every day. Before, you could buy at least the essentials, but things are so tough that even children are going without food. This government is playing with fire,” concludes a young man at the fair while offering his to light his companion’s cigarette.

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From Cuba’s Air Force Helicopters, the Panorama After Hurricane Rafael Is Even More Bleak

The roofs that “flew” after the cyclone in Artemisa, where great damage was recorded, as seen from a helicopter / Lázaro Manuel Alonso / Facebook

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 8 November 2024 — Cubans have become accustomed to the buzz of the old Mi-17 helicopters of the Armed Forces in the last weeks of the cyclone. This Friday, with Cuban Television teams on board, several took photos that allow us to calibrate – with great detail and from above – the havoc caused by Hurricane Rafael in the Cuban west.

In one of the Mi-17 helicopters of Soviet manufacture and, judging by the images, with several years of use, five experts from the Electric Union (UNE) flew over Artemisa, Mayabeque and Pinar del Río to evaluate the state of the downed power lines. Embedded with the military, the technicians took note of a series of complex breakdowns.

“How long will it take to repair? It cannot be specified,” said the head of UNE Lines, Onassis Trujillo, alluding to six destroyed high-voltage towers near Guanajay. According to him, the Army itself is supervising the repairs, and the head of the Political Directorate of the Armed Forces, General Víctor Rojo – an expert pilot who carried out missions in Africa – and the leader of the Western Army, Ernest Feijóo, arrived at the foot of the towers.

The helicopter continued its journey over the base of Energás, in Jaruco, which the regime doesn’t generally show in published images. The base tower emitted a powerful flare, a sign that it has fuel. It is continue reading

intended to link Jaruco with the thermal power plant of Santa Cruz del Norte to create a microsystem, or “island,” of current for Mayabeque, according to the report.

Some flooded towns could be seen from the air / Facebook / Lázaro Manuel Alonso

The most impressive images among those recorded aboard the H-165 are those of the town of Mariel, with destroyed roofs and abundant pools of water. They also flew over the Máximo Gómez power station and the Turkish patana (floating power plant) Ela Sultan, whose presence in Mariel – although well known by the independent press – had not been verified through maritime tracking applications. The wind had knocked down ten wooden poles.

The journalist and spokesman for the regime, Lázaro Manuel Alonso, also boarded an Air Force helicopter this Friday. The pilots commented, according to his report, that gusts of wind were very dangerous for the old Cuban helicopters. Judging by the images, Alonso was in a Mi-17 H-166 helicopter.

One of the helicopters in this fleet, the H-115, crashed last April in Santiago de Cuba, killing its three crew members.

In Bauta, Mariel, Güira de Melena, Alquízar, Guanajay, Caimito and Artemisa, the damage was serious. Next to some fallen trees and roofs that “flew” there was an irrigation plane that had lost its wings. “But the most devastating footprint is in agriculture,” Alonso explains, and the images speak for themselves.

Cuban Television has not spared praise for the Armed Forces. In the Havana municipality of Cerro, several high-ranking officials of the Ministry of the Interior allowed themselves to be filmed, shovel in hand and in ordinary clothing – not work uniforms – to demonstrate their “commitment” to recovery. “We have been here since six in the morning,” Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Hernández proudly commented. Neighbors wearing Che Guevara and Fidel T-shirts praised the “great cleanup that the Minint (Ministry of the Interior) is doing.”

Several Cuban Television teams boarded the helicopters of the Armed Forces / Lázaro Manuel Alonso / Facebook

The Special Troops of Villa Clara, known as the Black Wasps, showed the cameras their modern equipment for rescue and recovery. Helmets, gloves, flashlights and new uniforms (unlike those used by soldiers or military service recruits), shovels, backpacks and life jackets, in addition to Dongfeng Chinese trucks are among the squad’s supplies. Each soldier also has a radio, portable antenna and headphones.

But the Army, reported 5 de Septiembre, has orders not only to quantify the hurricane damage and support the recovery work. They are also there to “strengthen surveillance and patrol the territory,” along with the Ministry of the Interior. The “combatants” are in charge of “control of the public road” and “other actions” to maintain calm despite the discontent of the victims.

We must protect, they say, “the resources of the State” and the “conquests of the Revolution,” a phrase that leaves no doubt: if there are protests, the same forces that operate the helicopter will be able to wield weapons.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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