Translating Cuba – Page 151 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

The Owner of the Restaurant El Patio De Olga in Santa Clara Is Murdered

The 31-year-old offered transvestite shows in the restaurant

Luis Miguel Llanta was 31 years old / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 2 October 2024 — Luis Miguel Llanta, 31, who worked as a transvestite with the stage name Gia D’Yenifer in the restaurant he owned, El Patio de Olga, was murdered this Tuesday in Santa Clara by another man with whom he had a relationship. The news was confirmed to 14ymedio by Kiriam Gutiérrez Pérez, a friend of the victim. The actress posted the event on her Facebook page, without giving details of the event.
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“Luis Miguel was murdered by a boy with whom he had an informal relationship a while ago. His friends say that there was blackmail and that’s when Luis broke it off. The boy demanded money that Luis Miguel did not want to give him and yesterday summoned him to his house around 11 in the morning and murdered him,” Kiriam Gutiérrez said on Wednesday.

The neighbors say there was blackmail. The boy demanded money that Luis Miguel didn’t want to pay him

The aggressor’s home is next to Llanta’s sister’s, and it was she who heard screams and called their mother. The two entered the house and found Llanta’s body, “wrapped in a sheet under the kitchen table,” Gutiérrez said. The aggressor confessed the fact, and his own mother called the police. Later he left the neighborhood “looking for a suitcase.” According to the actress, “it seemed that he had intentions of dismembering the body and burying it or dispersing it.”

Gutiérrez Pérez pointed out that Llanta was a very dear person “for the entire LGBTI community, for his neighbors and for his workers,” and that he “helped everyone.” “Many times he fed people in need and didn’t charge them. He was one of those people that friends always turn to. He was always unconditional with me. In the middle of the pandemic he was attentive to everything that happened. He always supported me,” said the actress. continue reading

The death disrupted the community of Santa Clara and his friends on social networks. People close to the 31-year-old regretted the incident and demanded justice for the homicide. “Oh, my sister, Luisa, as we called you, ’The [female] Cousin.’ You have left us in the worst way possible, which is when they take away your life,” wrote the user Crîs Dîamond.

The death disturbed the community of Santa Clara and his friends on social networks. People close to the 31-year-old regretted the incident and demanded justice for the homicide

Although there are no official figures on the number of murders on the Island, independent organizations and media have documented the trend of this crime in Cuba. In August alone, at least 22 people (almost one every day) were killed in the country in 11 provinces of Cuba – including three femicides – according to Cubalex. That number of homicides equals the one recorded last March, which was, until now, the month with the most homicide victims so far in 2024.

In addition, according to Cuba Siglo 21, in a report on public safety, the monthly average of homicides on the Island during the first half of this year was 15 cases, with a total of 91 murders in that period, 22 of which occurred in March.

Also, El Toque estimated, in an investigation carried out in August, that more than one person per day has been murdered in Cuba,, at least, in the last five years.” The study took the population figure of 2023, published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (from more than 11,000,000 inhabitants, in 2019, to 10,055,968, in December 2023), and calculated the rate of intentional homicides at 4.97 percent.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Neither Green nor Red, Havana’s Traffic Lights Go Dark With the Blackouts and Breakdowns

A traffic light goes out at the foot of Tower K, on Avenue 23, El Vedado, Havana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 2 October 2024 — Being a pedestrian in Havana is a high-risk sport. To the gaps in the sidewalks and the balconies that threaten to fall on the heads of those who pass by must be added the deterioration of the traffic lights. To cross the most important avenues of the Cuban capital you need a quick glance, a good dose of courage and fast feet that allow you to take advantage of the opportunity between one vehicle and another. More than the traditional green, yellow or red from those boxes with bulbs and circuits, only the darkness caused by breakage and blackouts is now exhibited.

With the signals out, not only due to lack of electricy, the traffic light in front of the opulent López-Calleja Tower, known as the Tower K, that stands in the heart of El Vedado sets the standard for the environment that surrounds the tallest building on the Island. While the colossus rises above the city and is covered with glass, the neighborhood shows the crisis that affects the whole country. “It’s been broken for months, no one cares,” murmured an old man on Wednesday who moved to the nearby corner of L and 23 to try his luck and get to the other side of the street. “They’re probably waiting for the first guests to arrive at this luxury hotel to repair the traffic light,” he said, disgusted.

Pedestrian traffic lights go out on G Street in Havana. / 14ymedio

Almost two decades ago, the official press was filled with headlines about the devices, of Chinese origin, which would be installed on some important streets in Havana. Manufactured by the Lopus company, and distributed in Cuba by the Cuban-Chinese marketer GKT, those traffic lights had a digital continue reading

clock to control the light changes and that indicated to drivers and pedestrians how much time they had left to cross an intersection. Local media reported that the devices could be programmed according to traffic in the area. But the lack of maintenance and spare parts made them go out little by little.

Along 23rd Street, the sophisticated traffic lights stopped working and generated true chaos for road and pedestrian traffic. At the end of last year, at the intersection in front of the Habana Libre hotel and the Coppelia ice cream parlor, the authorities had to place a conventional device to try to control traffic. But the constant breakdowns had already made people lose the habit of waiting on the sidewalk until they see the little green man and they may throw themselves into the crossing.

“It’s lucky that with the lack of fuel there are far fewer cars circulating,” acknowledged a señora who, with a fan and sun glasses, made a diagonal to get from El Quijote Park practically to the Yara cinema. “That and the fact that there are fewer and fewer people in this country,” she added.

On her way, she passed in front of the traffic light that went out right in front of the López-Calleja Tower hotel, which, at that time of morning, shone on its four sides with the obscene reflections of the sun on its windows.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Wild Pigs, Vultures and Dumpster Divers Live From the Garbage in a Giant Landfill in Matanzas, Cuba

The “buzos,” dumpster divers, arrive at the landfill, looking for treasure and food in the depths of the garbage. /Girón]

14ymedio, Havana, 29 September 2024 — From the satellite cameras it looks like a stain on the outskirts of Matanzas. Those who walk by have the impression of visiting a museum of Cuban ruins from the last 20 years. It is the city’s landfill, “founded” – if the word can be used – in 2003 by the authorities in an old quarry four kilometers from the Central Highway. The Communist Party newspaper in the province defines it as an “old lavatory dug in the stone.”

On Saturday, the official press published photographs of the place, where – according to the Communal Services – 700 cubic meters of waste are thrown every day. Without offensive words, the report lets the images speak for themselves. Vultures resting on a bicycle handlebar, satisfied after devouring the remains of food; pigs – “hundreds of them” – refreshing themselves in a mud puddle; herons of an immaculate white circling over the mounds, in search of rodents and banana peels.

When there is fuel, the Communal Services trucks collect the garbage from Matanzas, skirt the University of Medical Sciences and arrive at the dump, visible on Google Maps. The data, Girón reflects, are useless. Only two types of people go to the citadel of garbage: those who work there and those who benefit from the landfill.

Wild pigs roam freely, eating the garbage and cooling off in the pestilent puddles. / Giron

Among the latter there are not only dumpster divers – for whom each mound is a buffet: they take everything they can carry – but also farmers who release their animals so that they can find food themselves. Not only the pigs attest to this, but also a black and white cow that, in a panoramic view of the garbage dump published by the newspaper, appears as a tiny continue reading

figure among mountains of waste.

The quarry belonged to a guajiro named Conrado Marrero, whose land was exchanged for “a few hectares” of land in a less rough area of the province. Originally it was a gap; now it has grown and – Girón calculates – the amount of garbage that is thrown for four days could fill an Olympic pool.

The landfill located on the outskirts of the city of Matanzas is more than 20 years old. / Giron

The garbage dump of the University of Medical Sciences has two “younger brothers”: one in Guanábana and the other in Ceiba Mocha, also in the vicinity of the city. But none receives as much garbage as the first, and if it has seen a relief in recent months it is because the Communal Services trucks do not have the fuel to keep up. The garbage that is missing in the landfill, however, remains in the streets of Matanzas, which threatens to become the fourth and most unhealthy landfill in the region.

The enumeration of objects by the newspaper touches on pathos: a “dirty teddy bear” next to an anachronistic CUC bill; coffins that have lost their nails and linings; underwear, condoms, toilet paper and stripped cables; “clumps of rice, blackened tomatoes, red beans covered with white fungus”; and pigs, many pigs.

The case of these animals is peculiar. The landfill caretaker reports that they escape from neighboring farms and live there, wild. Testimony of this is that their fur is short and black, their body is agile, and they are frightened when they hear the steps of those who go to the garbage dump. There are also chickens, rats and flies, in addition to frequent territorial disputes between “roosters and vultures” over a portion of land.

The Communal Services trucks skirt the University of Medical Sciences and arrive at the dump, visible on Google Maps. / Google Maps

There are also jejenes – gnats – that not only “are big enough to carry you” but also transmit dengue fever, the Oropouche virus and other arboviruses. The only human sign – in addition to the mountains of waste – is a wooden shed and a bulldozer that keeps the debris at bay. “When the wind directs the stench towards the guard house, it smells like a decomposing corpse,” says the caretaker.

To that smell is added the stench of burning. Its cause is also unusual: a spontaneous fire in the landfill began four months ago and has not yet been completely extinguished. The bulldozer operator has tried in vain to cover it with dirt and they left it like that. It is the garbage gas that continues to fuel the fire, he explains.

Vultures, dogs, rats, pigs, herons and, from time to time, even cows reside in the garbage dump, sharing the spoils. / Giron

The caretaker’s worst enemy is the dumpster divers. “They don’t like to be seen,” he points out, and he has instructions to “alarm them” by screaming. If they don’t leave, which often happens, he has to call the police. The guard has another task: to classify waste for Raw Material, but he hasn’t done it for a while.

The Girón reporters admit to having left the place devastated. The only authority in the landfill seems to be the vultures, which spread their wings on the mounds to warn strangers who is in charge in each sector. One of them – it can be seen in the photos – looks insistently at the city of Matanzas.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Raúl Castro Multiplies His Public Appearances To Show He’s Still Alive

Rumors about Raúl Castro’s death usually coincide with moments of high national tension

Castro says goodbye to General Ramón Espinosa in the Granma room of the Ministry of the Armed Forces. / Estudios Revolución]

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 1 October 2024 — Raúl Castro’s appearances on Cuban Television, after the increasingly frequent flood of rumors about his death, have become a kind of State ritual. At the beginning of the year, it was an official media – the very faithful Cubainformación – that coined the term “resurrection” to designate these sudden incursions of the nonagenarian general in front of the cameras.

Last September, five generals of the Armed Forces died, and the rumors circulated like never before. Castro, however, did not appear until the end of the month, to receive the president of Vietnam and say goodbye to one of his closest collaborators. In the Granma room of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, together with the leaders of the regime, Raúl Castro paid a late “tribute” to Ramón Espinosa Martín, who died four days earlier.

The scene has been repeated many times in recent years. The family of the deceased soldier is placed in front of a double row of leaders: in the center, Miguel Díaz-Canel, Raúl Castro and Ramiro Valdés; next to them, Manuel Marrero, Esteban Lazo, the Minister of the Armed Forces – Álvaro López Miera – and the Minister of the Interior, Lázaro Álvarez Casas. Presiding over the hall are the ashes of the deceased, his medals and a wooden mural with the Granma yacht. continue reading

Without saying a word – the ceremony has been described over and over again by the official press – Castro approaches with a white rose, bends down with more and more difficulty, and places it on a small table in front of the remains. Then, the military and leaders of the room stand at the same time.

The general’s “short stay” guarantees the family that the deceased had Castro’s utmost confidence

The general’s “short stay” guarantees the family that the deceased had, as is the case of Espinosa Martín, Castro’s utmost confidence. They describe his presence at the funeral as a “meaningful gesture,” which the former leader of the Communist Party tops off by personally greeting each family member.

In July 2022 – when rumors of his death were circulating – Raúl had to go to the same room to give his own family his condolences. Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, his former son-in-law and the man who took the economic reins of Cuba at the head of the Gaesa military conglomerate, had just passed away. Like this weekend, Castro spent time “without saying words” and was followed closely by his grandson and bodyguard, Raúl Guillermo, son of the deceased.

Predictions about Raúl Castro’s death usually coincide with moments of high national tension, fueled by the economic crisis and blackouts. His appearance is intended to mitigate another rumor: the breakdown of the regime’s structure if the general dies and leaves the current leaders without the “shelter” of the historical generation.

This is the scenario in which Cubainformación – not without a certain religious fervor – spoke of Castro’s “resurrections.” Last January, when several rumors once again gave him up for dead in the midst of “difficult moments,” the media boasted of his appearance in Santiago de Cuba.

“It must now be like the fifteenth time this month that they say that Raúl Castro has died,” the Spanish journalist José Manzaneda said, laughing. “Today he reappeared or revived. These people (several influencers) don’t get tired of making fools of themselves. When a person reappears and gives a speech of almost half an hour, with perfect diction, despite his age – and he is now pretty old – with an absolutely coherent speech … they make fools of themselves.”

The co-host, Lázaro Oramas, also celebrated Raúl’s “resurrection”: “All these unpatriotic people, all these enemies, all these scoundrels will be eating their words,” he said. Another good omen, Manzaneda said: with the old man present, the flag of the cathedral square of Santiago de Cuba had begun to wave – a “good sign” in his opinion that the year was going to go well.

Educated by the Jesuits, the Castro brothers took advantage of religious symbolism on numerous occasions and speeches

Educated by the Jesuits, the Castro brothers took advantage of religious symbolism on numerous occasions and speeches. From the enthronement of the “martyrs” – the rebels killed by Fulgencio Batista’s army – to the white dove that Fidel made perch on his shoulder in 1959 through a trick, the idea that a kind of mysterious will accompanies the Revolution (atheist and Marxist) has been constantly recreated. On July 26, 2023, without going any further, Raúl’s appearance coincided with the dawn.

During Fidel Castro’s long convalescence, there was also talk of his sporadic “resurrections.” In 2012, in one of the moments when the rumor of his death ran from mouth to mouth – there was still no mass access to the Internet – the old man appeared in front of the cameras. He had not given signs of life for almost seven months, and several Miami media had already taken his death for granted.

Castro dressed as a gardener appeared in several photos taken by his son. He was then 86 years old and had four years left. His brother Raúl is 93 today, and many Cubans have predicted – as they did in 2016 with Fidel – that his death will cause the disappearance of a regime that always seems to have its days numbered and is now approaching its seventh decade of existence.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Cuban Baseball Player From the Matanzas Team Who Traveled to Spain Without Bats Escapes

Baseball player Yoisnel Camejo disassociated himself from Cuban baseball after the failure of the Matanzas team in Spain / Facebook/Cuba Grand Slam

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 1 October 2024 — Yoisnel Camejo, a member of the Matanzas team, left the club’s training in Spain. The player, according to the Cuba Grand Slam Facebook page, “decided to stay on Spanish soil” after the failure and elimination of the team in the Catalan Cup.

It will be difficult for the Matanzas team to participate again in an international event. Camejo “took advantage of the opportunity and embarked on a new path through Spain although it may not be linked to baseball,” said Pelota Cubana journalist Miguel Rodríguez.

Camejo did not show up with the rest of his teammates to board the 6:00 a.m. flight from Spain that was returning the team to the Island, thereby “breaking any link with the Cuban athletic movement.” The athlete chose to “start a new process in his life,” the magazine Swing Completo added.

During the tournament, in which Matanzas recorded two defeats and one victory, Camejo participated in two games and struck out in one of them. The athlete participated in six National Series with the Cocodrilos team. In 50 games he had 82 times at bat, 31 hits, two doubles, five triples, a couple of home runs and 18 assisted runs. continue reading

The Catalan Cup confirmed that Cuban baseball “is bogged down and has lost the gift of victory,” said Por la Goma after Matanzas’ failure. The team’s result showed the lack of foresight on the part of the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) in the processing of visas for the players and the team’s lack of preparation.

The former player for Industriales is now in the US / Facebook / Francys Romero

Pelota Cubana reported this Monday that in addition to the fact that the players of Matanzas traveled without training, they also did so “without a complete team and, what is more alarming, without bats.”

The club had to “borrow” the bats. “How can such an improvisation be explained in an international competition? The answer is simple: the Cuban player, like the rest of the citizens on the Island, has been forced to survive instead of fully dedicating himself to his profession,” stressed the same specialized media.

Cuban baseball players seem more concerned about what they can take back home, the same specialized media highlighted. The reason many players did not carry bats is because “if they load down their luggage with bats, the weight they can bring back is much lower,” the publication pointed out, referring to the weight of luggage allowed by the airlines.

This Monday, the arrival in the United States of baseball player Óscar Valdés, who was absent from the national team’s lineup for the Premier 12, was also confirmed. So far it is unknown if there is interest from a major league club in the player from Industriales.

In his career in the National Series and the Elite League, Valdés has a batting average of .282 with 99 doubles, 11 triples, 32 home runs, 303 RBI runs and 304 scored.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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At the Central Post Office in Cienfuegos, a Single Employee Serves the Public

“Today it will take two hours, at least,” estimates Antonio, a retiree who comes to collect his pension

The post office on San Carlos Street in Cienfuegos is buzzing with dissatisfied customers. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 30 September 2024 — A few blocks from Cienfuegos Bay, the post office office on San Carlos Street is buzzing with dissatisfied customers. They have no place to sit, and as the sun hits the avenue, tension and annoyance increase. People come to transact business or to buy stamps, but before asking who’s the last in line*, they have to calculate if they have enough time and patience.

“Today it will be two hours, at least,” estimates Antonio, a retiree who comes to collect his pension, perceiving the long line as a field of cane that he has to cut with a machete. He has plenty of time and has acquired patience – as a remedy – over the years. Now he has his “door jamb”; that is, a space on the sidewalk where he sits with great difficulty. From there, the line advances. The sun and the discomfort too.

If the post office put its employees in more than one window, the story would be different, says Antonio. On the contrary, there are a series of “trenches” – a counter, a glass sideboard, an empty armchair – that prevent passage and regulate the movement of the line. Everyone must go “through the channel” to the only available window.

The office is gloomy. Several burned-out light bulbs hang from the ceiling, which don’t improve the appearance of the premises. The paint – a greenish gray – absorbs the light and gives the place a suffocating atmosphere. The windows of the facade are covered with tinted plastic, the well-known and not very useful measure against cyclones, and someone – it is difficult to imagine why – stole the plastic cabin of one of the public telephones. continue reading

Everyone must go “through the channel” to the only available window

In a place like this, the “coleros” [people paid by others to stand in line for them] thrive with their “little deals,” but Antonio – out of embarrassment, he says – does not get involved. “I wouldn’t have the nerve to get in line with five or six people behind me.” Not without some sadness, he says that saving a place in line is paid at 500 pesos per person. It is the price he pays for avoiding discomfort, embarrassment and not infrequently the insults of those who do suffer the wait.

It’s not often that elderly retirees with pension books pay a colero. The business deal is not economical if it has to be repeated every month, and for a meager state pension it’s not worth it. “Those who do pay want to buy stamps, so it’s normal for another person to save a place in line to collect a pension and at the same time ’resolve’ the purchase of something else. So you wait and earn a little money,” explains Antonio.

But there is no money in the world that justifies the “ordeal” of being in the post office. When there is only one worker at the window – which is usually the case – you have to start lining up at 5:00 am in order to leave, hopefully, by 10:00 or 11:00 am. It’s not worth it, the retiree insists, and he returns to his “door jamb” spot.

To Vilma – self-employed and with much less patience than Antonio when it comes to lines – what bothers her is that two blocks from the Post Office “a man” has all the stamps there have been and will be for an informal sale. “Where do you get them?” she asks. She gives the answer at the same time as those around her, pointing to the post office: “From right there.”

The office is gloomy. Several burned out light bulbs hang from the ceiling, which do not improve the appearance of the premises. / 14ymedio

The corruption is remarkable, she says, because the person selling stamps also has ways of doing business with the National Office of the Tax Administration (ONAT), according to Vilma. For years, she has preferred not to settle her accounts with ONAT through the post office. Every procedure is cumbersome, and the only stamp that the office is quick to put on its papers, she says, is “that of inefficiency.”

The post office is no longer even useful for her to receive the national newspaper at home, she points out. “I canceled my contract,” she says proudly. “In addition to putting up with the newspapers only publishing what suits them, they arrived three and four days late. When I came to complain about the bad service, they justified themselves by telling me that the workers are insufficient to meet the city’s demand.” Now I get the news through social networks.

It would take too many words to describe the deficiencies in the parcel service, Vilma continues. “Someone recently sent me a package from Spain. After three months passed and it hadn’t arrived, I made a claim. They blamed the lack of fuel, transportation and, of course, the blockade.” The matter didn’t stop there. If the package was, as she supposed, in national territory, she was told she could “motivate influence.” Once money changed hands, the package immediately appeared.

Defeating the line does not guarantee anything, since the attention at the window brings properly institutional obstacles

On San Carlos Street, it doesn’t matter if you come to collect your pension, send a letter – a practice that is increasingly disappearing – or do a national transfer: the line, warns the guard, is “only one person at a time.” The defense by blood and fire of that “unit” seems to be the real concern of the staff, says Antonio.

Defeating the line does not guarantee anything, since the attention at the window brings institutional obstacles, such as the fact of not being able to send more than 2,100 pesos in a transfer. “It’s one limit after another,” Vilma complains.

The post office on San Carlos is the “central one” in Cienfuegos. If its operation leaves much to be desired, the booths are even more alarming. Closed firmly, they have only one function: to give shade to those who, overwhelmed by the incompetence and heat of Cienfuegos, seek a moment of truce.

*Translator’s note: Cubans join lines by asking “who’s last” and then, as soon as the next person joins behind them, they can move around freely without anyone ’losing their place’.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Voluptuous ‘Frutabomba’ Is No Longer Within the Reach of Every Cuban’s Purse

Mrs. Papaya reigned when oranges, cashews, custard apples and soursop disappeared

Fruit has been the victim of inflation that has pushed it past the pockets of many Cubans / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 29 September 2024 — The frutabomba, the most voluptuous of the fruits consumed in Cuban homes has, for decades, also been the ingredient of the most popular desserts and milkshakes when there is a shortage of milk for a good flan or the exclusive mamey disappears from the markets. Painted in paintings and recreated in engravings, in recent years it has ceased to be a product within everyone’s reach.

Also known as ‘papaya’, a moniker commonly used by Cubans to designate the vulva, it has the advantage of being large but the problem of being fragile when transported when ripe. Huge and delicate, it is most often sold whole in markets but can also be purchased in portions that must be swallowed in a short time before they spoil.

Now, a pound of frutabomba is sold for 60 pesos in the market at 19th and B in El Vedado, Havana. A single specimen can weigh quite a bit, so with less than 300 pesos it is unlikely that you will be able to walk away with one of these fruits in your bag, and trying to buy a small portion, for just one person, can be as difficult as convincing a vendor in the downtown store to sell half a head of garlic or just a couple of lettuce leaves.

A pound of frutabomba is sold for 60 pesos at the market on 19th and B in El Vedado. / 14ymedio

While other products have doubled or tripled in price in recent months, the price of frutabomba has remained stable throughout 2024, although in continue reading

November of last year it reached 70 pesos per pound. But even without significant jumps, the fruit has also been the victim of inflation that has pushed it out of the pockets of many Cubans. Its rise began at the beginning of this century, when it began to replace other fruits that were in short supply at that time.

In the absence of oranges, Mrs. Papaya came out on top. In the absence of cashews, sugar apples, custard apples and soursops, their plump appearance and small seeds replaced a long list of delicacies that once sprouted from the branches of so many trees throughout the country. Easy to harvest, with a medium-sized plant but high productivity and without great demands to be transported in its green state, it was the perfect food for the state-owned Acopio to fill figures and organize agricultural fairs.

But people wanted them ripe, ready to be cut into pieces and devoured. That’s where popular ingenuity came into play. They discovered that if a green specimen was dipped in a formula based on nitrogen fertilizers, it quickly acquired a beautiful color that made customers salivate and pushed them to reach into their wallets. When they got home and cut open the beautiful frutabomba, they found a whitish and tasteless interior.

Hence the need to see the inside of the fruit before buying it. A small triangle cut with a skillful knife allowed the inside to be seen. “Yes, I’ll take it,” sealed the deal with the buyer, relieved to know in advance that it was not one of those “hastily ripened” frutabombas. But with popular tricks you never know, over time the “ripening accelerators” have become more difficult to detect.

A frutabomba dessert, made with green or multi-colored pieces, has saved dessert for countless families

For its part, candied frutabomba, made with pieces of green or multicolored fruit, has saved dessert for countless Cuban families for decades. Easy to make, without complicated ingredients, the syrupy recipe has, however, come up against the lack of sugar in the country that was once mistaken for a sugar mill, beating to the rhythm of the machinery of a sugar mill, and the sound of the cutting of the canes in the sugarcane fields.

The stability of the price of frutabomba in recent months is due more to the loss of the ingredients and contexts that enhance it than to the ups and downs of the market. Given the lack of sugar and tourists, the most sensual of fruits does not rise as much as other products, but neither does it fall from the heights to which it has risen. However, it can still be seen in hotel buffets and in the paintings that tourists buy in souvenir markets.

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The Cuban Regime and Cultural Colonization

The Island was too small for Fidel Castro and he set about conquering the rest of the world

Fidel Castro with Mengistu Haile Mariam, who overthrew the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie to establish a Marxist regime. / Historical archive

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 30 September 2024 — The ideologues of the Castro model repeat ad nauseam that their struggle is based on a supposed “cultural decolonization.” Abel Prieto Jiménez, a storyteller, civil servant and advisor to generals, has become tiresome with this matter. His latest books and conferences are like a catauro [basket] where he inserts loose phrases, gossip and memes, obsessively attacking Sylvester Stallone or Shakira and labeling anyone with a minimally liberal discourse as fascist. One of his most laughable anecdotes is about how Che was worried about young revolutionaries who read comics in the 60s, because Superman demoralized the effort of the Agrarian Reform.

Another of the champions of this “decolonizing battle” is the Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet. With his European passport, the highly paid intellectual travels through Latin American dictatorships, offering his unrestricted support to figures such as Díaz-Canel, Nicolás Maduro and Daniel Ortega. The Galician-Parisian says that the handicap of the left is ethics, because the left is incapable of lying. He could not be more cynical. The Cuban Revolution itself was born on the basis of four founding lies: the repeated denial of communism; the hope of free elections; the guarantee of forming several political parties; and the promise to respect freedom of the press. The lies did not last very long. In just two years, that supposedly authentic revolution became a tropical copy of the Stalinist model.

The lies did not last very long. In just two years, that supposedly authentic revolution became a tropical copy of the Stalinist model.

From then on we would learn to say “homeland” in Russian, we would copy the Bulgarian Constitution, we would travel in Ladas, Moskvich or Karpaty cars, we would send our children to study in Leningrad, and we would replace Mickey Mouse with Masha and the Bear, until the mighty Soviet empire said “ konets ” (end). For 30 years, we were culturally closer to a Pole or a Serbian than to our own former culture. We allowed the Russians to establish not only military bases on our land, but even atomic missiles. The crudest slap in the face to the word “sovereignty” was when we applauded the Warsaw Pact tanks entering Prague to crush its spring. Half a century later, the Cuban regime once again applauds interference, shamelessly supporting Putin in his invasion of Ukraine.

Fidel Alejandro Castro was, in essence, a colonizer. An unbounded admirer of his namesake Alexander the Great, he always thought that Cuba was too small for him. And, once he achieved the status of an Antillean demigod, he set about conquering the rest of the world. Cuba did not send its armies to Africa to decolonize that continent, but to establish Marxist regimes loyal to Moscow.

The USSR provided the weapons and we provided the dead. The most notorious case was in Angola, where Cuban soldiers massacred tens of thousands of Angolans, even after their country had gained independence from Portugal. On May 27, 1977, more than 30,000 dissidents were tortured or killed by Agostinho Neto with the help of the Cuban military occupation. In 2019, the president of Angola publicly apologized for that massacre. But the Cuban regime has never apologized.

Not to mention all the damage we caused in Latin America, infesting the region with armed guerrillas. Although almost all of them failed, many were linked to drug trafficking and others mutated into conventional politics. Today we have the Nicaraguan dictatorship, repudiated by the vast majority of the international community, but unconditionally supported by Havana. Ultimately, it is its bastard daughter. And in Venezuela we have shown that the Castro model is not only capable of ruining a small country, but can also metastasize poverty, in record time, even in the richest country in the region.

In Latin America today we have the Nicaraguan dictatorship, repudiated by the vast majority of the international community, but unconditionally supported by Havana

Much has been said about Castro-communism and its characteristics, but not so much about Castro-capitalism. The model example was the Convertible Currency Department (MC). Beyond the four executed in 1989 during the Causa Uno [Cause Number 1], the company laid the foundations for what is now Gaesa. Castro-capitalism is defined by being monopolistic, shady, hermetic, by having relations with drug trafficking, by the use of front men, by being controlled and led by the military, by money laundering, piracy and ghost companies, by being above the law and the comptrollers. Castro-capitalism uses human beings as merchandise, having healthcare providers as its star product. The Cuban State’s trade in doctors is more lucrative than remittances or tourism, and has been described by several human rights organizations as “modern slavery.”

We should also define Castro-imperialism, which seeks to replace Uncle Sam with Uncle Putin; to replace Batman posters with T-shirts of a Joker like Che Guevara; to vindicate the ETA, the ELN and Hamas; to impose Maduro as a “democratic paradigm”; to demonize the liberal model; to appropriate the discourse of minorities that it previously persecuted and marginalized; to replace the bourgeoisie with civil servants.

No, Mr. Abel Prieto, you are not seeking to decolonize anything at all, you are seeking to recolonize. You dream of imposing the hegemony of a single party and a single way of thinking throughout the world. Fortunately, fewer and fewer people are buying your rhetoric.
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The Cuban Government Sees ‘Discreet Progress’ in the Macroeconomy While the Country Sinks

The Council of Ministers says it has implemented “very important actions,” but they have not yet reached the population

Poverty has increased considerably in Cuba in recent years, with inflation, a decline in the quality of care, and a loss of value of the currency, among other things / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 30 September 2024 — With a fiscal deficit of more than 15% of the Gross Domestic Product, a GDP contraction of 1.9, an official year-on-year inflation rate of more than 30%, a devalued peso against the dollar and a public debt of more than 20 billion dollars, Cuban authorities say that there are “discrete advances in macroeconomic indicators that have not yet reached the family economy.” The Council of Ministers reached this surprising conclusion this weekend, in a meeting to review the progress of the month of September.

The optimism that overflows from the article published in the official press entitled “A Process That Advances, But Not at the Required Speed” is unprecedented in a country that is experiencing its most tense days in recent decades, in which there has been no shortage of galloping crises that pale in comparison to the current one, marked by a constant shortage of fuel that not only prevents families from sleeping and eating, but also prevents industries from producing, transport from moving and, ultimately, having the slightest chance of minimally improving conditions.

The Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso Vázquez, however, said that the Government’s plan to correct distortions and to revive the situation is not going badly. “Although the actions carried out are incipient, we are already seeing how some economic indicators are moving.” The only data that remotely support his words were those of the state and municipal budget deficit, which are lower than expected, for reasons that are not as happy as they seem. continue reading

“Although the actions taken are incipient, we are already seeing how some economic indicators are moving,” he said.

The Minister of Finance and Prices, Vladimir Regueiro Ale, said that there is a state deficit of 32.125 billion pesos, 23.249 billion pesos less than planned. But the causes are, on the one hand, the “over-fulfillment of income” and, on the other, undoubtedly worrying but vague, “the non-execution of expenses.” Although he does not offer further details in this regard, the savings may come either from the decrease in the population or from the inability to execute works or programs necessary for the population.

At the local level, the deficit is 2.315 billion pesos, 4.990 billion less than the budgeted figure. There are 54 municipalities, among which Havana and Matanzas stood out, with a surplus. These figures will allow for adjustments in the budget, the authorities said without further details. And that is all the good news.

The Government has reviewed the first two months of the price cap for private companies on six basic products. “Both violations and good experiences have been identified,” it said. The number of inspections carried out is striking: 222,300, from which 348 million pesos were obtained from more than 137,000 fines. From these figures it can be concluded that the average penalty is around 2,800 pesos, barely 8.4 dollars in the informal currency market, an amount that many consider to be insignificant.

Another quantified fact was that of the so-called banking sector, which increased by 4% compared to July, although it is still light years away from the wishes of the authorities, suffocated by the lack of money in circulation. According to the top brass of the Government, there are “discreet solutions to begin to better control inflation and also the exchange rate of the Cuban peso.” This last issue, announced numerous times throughout the year, still has no plan in sight to stabilize either the national currency or the foreign exchange market.

Two facts that make clear the divorce between Cuban society and financial institutions: there are more than 300,000 fiscal bank accounts with zero balances and some 152,000 “non-state management forms” without an operating account.

The official press claims that the ministers discussed the current situation of the country’s main sectors, from the harvest to tourism, including imports, exports, agricultural production and relations between the State and private sectors. However, the state of each of the sectors is not specified, although the state of tourism is public knowledge: catastrophic, with year-on-year counts of international passengers falling almost by half.

Another depressing comment also slipped in. “The link between the national economy and the entities located in the Mariel Special Development Zone is still low, affecting the expected result,” the Government admitted to no one’s surprise. After ten years of development in 2023 , Raúl Castro’s star investment project was born to raise 2.5 billion dollars annually and had barely raised 3.5 billion in a decade.

“The link between the national economy and the entities located in the Mariel Special Development Zone is still low, affecting the expected result”

Manuel Marrero used the phrase ’chapucería’ [botched work] again, as he did last week in Gibara, to criticize local and provincial officials and asked them to “get to grips with subjective problems, each one in their own field, in the tasks that correspond to them and direct them, but also at the community level, which is where problems are first resolved.”

The Prime Minister admitted that the situation is bad due to “the lack of fuel, foreign currency, electricity,” but he urged people to resolve the problems that he called “subjective,” without making it very clear what he was referring to. However, he made clear his belief that at the state level – for which he is responsible – things are not going so badly. “[The Government] has implemented a number of very important actions, the population still does not perceive it, because it has not yet had a direct impact on them,” he insisted.

The meeting also discussed the ’accountability meetings’ that are taking place these days, meetings in which the problems most frequently expressed by the population were the high prices of basic products, the water supply and waste treatment, construction and maintenance of housing and multi-family buildings, the poor condition of roads and public transport and telephone service, although electricity was especially singled out, as expected. This Monday, the Cuban Electric Union again forecast a deficit of more than 1,100 MW, and the days are already piling up on the population, especially outside Havana, where the hours without electricity are already many more than the hours with it.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, as if bureaucracy were not his problem, asked officials to give answers to the population when they raise a protest. “These are issues that are there, and what is missing is a response, which sometimes, unfortunately, is not possible; but we also have to explain this with sensitivity,” he concluded.

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Former Cuban Prosecutor Who Sent 11J Protesters in Camagüey to Prison Enters the US

Rosabel Roca Sampedro has a hearing in the Houston Immigration Court on April 9

Former Cuban prosecutor Rosabel Roca Sampedro / Facebook

14ymedio, Madrid, 30 September 2024 — Despite the alert launched by various organizations and the express request to the Department of Homeland Security by three congressmen that her her request for asylum be rejected, former Cuban prosecutor Rosabel Roca Sampedro entered the United States on July 15. According to Martí Noticias, which had reported on the case last June, Roca Sampedro entered with a CBP One appointment at the border with Mexico in Brownsville, Texas.

The US media also confirmed that the former official — responsible for the sentences of up to four-and-a-half-years in prison for four protesters in Camagüey who participated in the Island-wide demonstrations on 11 July 2021, known as ’11J’ — has a preliminary hearing in the Houston Immigration Court on April 9 at 1 p.m.

Roca Sampedro, who left Cuba with her young daughter, has been living in Houston, where her older daughter also lives, at least in recent months, Martí Noticias confirmed, pointing out that the work permit she holds will allow her to benefit from the United States’ Cuban Adjustment Act, after a year and one day of being in US territory, and she will be able to obtain a residence permit. continue reading

One of the organizations that raised the alarm about the case last June was the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC), which has the former prosecutor on its list of repressors. Another was Prisoners Defenders, which confirmed that Roca Sampedro prosecuted Case Number 26 of 2022, with Preparatory Phase File 32 of 2021, for “attack and contempt” against four participants in the protests of 11 July 2021.

Roca Sampedro has resided in Houston, where her eldest daughter also lives, at least in recent months

She was involved in the cases of Adrián Quesada Flores, who was 32 years old when he was arrested; Geovanis Sepúlveda Martínez (43); Lesyani Heredia Salazar (22) and Yadisley Ramírez (34). Roca Sampedro is classified by the FHRC as a “white collar” repressor, and her record includes accusations of prevarication, politically motivated persecution and crimes against humanity.

She also participated in the accusation – and subsequent sentencing of Bárbaro de Céspedes to one year and six months in prison for demonstrating on 11J. De Céspedes is the opposition member who carried a wooden cross during Good Friday 2021 in Camagüey. After his pilgrimage to the La Merced church, De Céspedes was arrested by the police and tried for violating health measures against the coronavirus. After serving his sentence after ’11J’, he was released in February.

The former prosecutor follows the path of many other officials of the regime who choose the US to settle. Last August, the former first secretary of the Communist Party in Cienfuegos, Manuel Menéndez Castellanos, arrived in Miami. Other examples of emigrated officials compiled by this newspaper are Misael Enamorado Dager, former first secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba between 2001 and 2009, and Yurquis Companioni, a counterintelligence agent in Sancti Spíritus.

Not everyone manages to settle in the United States with impunity. Liván Fuentes Álvarez , former president of the National Assembly on the Isle of Youth, had his humanitarian parole revoked after his application was approved and he was about to travel to the US. Meanwhile, Judge Melody González , who sentenced four young people from Villa Clara to prison – without evidence and on orders from State Security, according to her own statements – for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at regime officials, arrived in May requesting political asylum after her humanitarian parole was denied . Currently detained at the Broward Transitional Center in Florida, the former official will have to prove, after a first failed attempt, that she is eligible for international protection.

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Humberto Carrillo y Colón, the Mexican Who Closely Spied on Castro for the CIA

Classics of Mexican music such as Cielito Lindo and La Paloma were the vehicle through which he transmitted information from Havana

Portrait of Carrillo in 1968, when he held a diplomatic position on the Island / Humberto Carrillo y Colón / WordPress

14ymedio, Mexico City, 26 August 2024 — Classics of Mexican music such as Cielito Lindo and La Paloma were the vehicle through which Humberto Carrillo y Colón, a failed intellectual and press attaché of the Mexican Embassy in Havana, transmitted information to the CIA about Fidel Castro and other communist leaders. The history of encrypted messages and their interception in 1969 by Cuban counterintelligence was released this Sunday by the newspaper Milenio.

The messages were sent at the same time and on the same day of the week: Sundays at 10:00 am, along with the best-known voices in Mexico. La Paloma played on the radio as an instruction; Cielito Lindo preceded a specific order. The radio station that circulated the information – according to the report of the Cuban spies – was broadcasting from Carrillo’s residence.

In the transmissions – which the Island’s counterintelligence, led by Manuel Piñeiro, “Barbarroja,” did not take long to detect – the movements of Party leaders and of Castro himself were documented. Worried about the messages, the caudillo called the Mexican ambassador Miguel Covián Pérez to ask him about Carrillo’s work. They met on September 3, 1969, although nothing is known about the discussion.

Carrillo said that the accusation against him was a machination of Fidel Castro himself

A day later and in the face of Covián’s inaction, Cuban Foreign Minister Raúl Roa summoned the head of the Mexican mission again to pressure him. Roa gave him the file on the Carrillo case, which was sent to Mexican President Gustavo Díaz, who some sources claim was also a CIA asset under the code name Litempo 2.

Carrillo, a frustrated musician and small-time journalist, was sent to Havana under strange circumstances: the office he was going to occupy did not exist and was created for him. This raised the regime’s suspicions as soon as he arrived on the Island, on March 25, 1968. The odd method he found to encrypt his messages was a reason for mockery in a contemporary article on the official State newspaper Granma. continue reading

“This CIA fondness for Mexican music, captured by radio listeners, contributed to a large extent to focus suspicions on the new Press Manager of the Mexican Embassy in Cuba,” joked the Communist Party newspaper, after airing the case.

Granma publicized the case in 1969, and a copy of the commentary is still preserved in the old archives of Mexican intelligence / Milenio

Carrillo’s shortwave radio was installed at number 504 10th Street in the Havana neighborhood of Miramar, where diplomatic residences and the Mexican Embassy are located. State Security also kept eyes on him for his meetings with intellectuals, journalists and leaders in a quite convulsive time for the country. According to the agents, in “his happy moments” he liked to say that he was not “a career diplomat, but on the run.”

On November 25, 1968, the Mexican diplomat made a trip to the United States “with the aim of expanding his training,” according to the report delivered by Havana to the Mexican Government. He returned to the Island a few days later on December 10, “with more modern shortwave radio transmission equipment.”

Another of the accusations launched by the Cuban government against him was his use of the diplomatic pouch to send correspondence that, in reality, contained classified information for the CIA station in Mexico, then directed by Winston Scott.

Another of the accusations launched by the Cuban Government against him was the use of the diplomatic pouch to send correspondence to the CIA

The story of how Carrillo’s espionage work was uncovered was also, as expected, memorable. After the meeting of Castro and Covián, and in the face of the fear that Carrillo would escape, State Security broke into his residence on September 4 and heard a distant voice on the radio – preceded by music, of course – that said: “2928 2437 1499 8990 4670 7058 5289.*”

Immediately, the same voice foolishly declared: “Message thirty-three. Destroy everything, equipment and papers immediately, for security reasons; take precautionary measures but maintain a normal routine so as not to attract attention. You know what’s happening. Regards, Enrique.”

Carrillo was not there – Covián had gone to look for him hours before – but State Security found evidence of his work, such as papers with invisible writing and notes that betrayed him.

After the scandal, Carrillo was expelled from Cuba, and back in Mexico, the Federal Security Directorate (DFS) – the then Mexican counterpart of the CIA – conducted its own investigation. He was questioned by the Mexican political police and by his own director, Fernando Gutiérrez Barrios. It is assumed that Gutiérrez Barrios was also in the service of the CIA under the code name Litempo 4. There is, however, no record of his interrogation of Carrillo.

The case file records that Carrillo denied the accusations of the Cuban Government and said he used his radio – “Zenit brand, model 3001, with modulated frequency of 5 or 6 bands” – only “to listen to the news given by the stations of Mexico, in particular the XEW and the Voice of America of Washington.”

The copy of the case file is kept in the General Archive of the Nation in Mexico City / Milenio

Carrillo said that the accusation against him was a machination of Fidel Castro himself because of the tense relationship that existed at that time between Mexico and Cuba, and that he was always “the scapegoat” for the Cuban Government. After all, the government of Díaz Ordaz never denied or admitted the accusations.

In 2021, Carrillo – then 83 years old – wrote a brief blog where he uploaded some photographs of his life, as a personal memory. In the only post he wrote, which almost works as his will, he says: “I consider that writing a classic autobiography should be done with cunning. In reality, all the truth is not always revealed, because we will never publish something truly intimate.”

*Translator’s note: A “numbers station” uses shortwave broadcasts of numbers, usually preceded by music or certain phrases, which are then decoded by intelligence agents (Wikipedia)

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Presidency of Cuba Announces that Díaz-Canel Is Visiting Mexico for the Fifth Time Since 2018

The Island needs Mexican oil in exchange for thousands of doctors

Díaz-Canel is accompanied by David Kershenobich, who will assume Mexico’s Ministry of Health in the Sheinbaum Government

14ymedio/EFE, Madrid, 30 September 2024 — This Sunday, Miguel Díaz-Canel was the first president to arrive in Mexico for the inauguration of the incoming president Claudia Sheinbaum, which will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, October 1, four months after she was elected as the successor to Andrés Manuel López Obrador. López Obrador has been one of the closest allies of the Cuban regime, as evidenced by the Pemex oil shipments to the Island and the substantial contracts for sending doctors to the most remote and dangerous areas of Mexico.

The Cuban president landed at Felipe Ángeles International Airport, where he was received with honors by the military guard and an unknown figure: David Kershenobich, future Secretary of Health in the Sheinbaum Government. Barely a week has passed since it was known that Cuba received more than 23 million euros for three contracts from the Social Security Institute and the Cuban Services Marketing company between July 2022 and December 2023, in addition to the announcement that the Island’s health workers will continue arriving in Mexico under the new Government.

Díaz-Canel is accompanied by a delegation that includes his wife, Lis Cuesta, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla; the head of the Department of International Relations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Emilio Lozada García; and the general director of Latin America and the Caribbean, Eugenio Martínez Enríquez. The delegation is completed by the Cuban ambassador to Mexico, Marcos Rodríguez.

A note published by the Presidency of Cuba points out that this is “the fifth time that the Cuban leader visits Mexico since he assumed the presidency of the Island in 2018, which denotes the close relationship he has maintained during all these years with the outgoing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.”

Shortly after Díaz-Canel, Brazilian President Luis Inazio Lula da Silva arrived. President Gustavo Petro of Colombia postponed his trip to Monday after the helicopter crash in which eight members of the Air Force lost their lives. “I want to accompany the families in their pain and follow the investigation personally to determine the causes of the event,” Petro said continue reading

when announcing his delay. It is expected that this Monday both presidents will meet with Sheinbaum to analyze the possibility of continuing to try a joint mediation of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico that promotes a dialogue between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition, which claims the victory of their candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, with 70% of the votes in the July 28 elections.

Díaz-Canel will have several unspecified meetings this Monday, as well as one with “members of the Cuban state mission.” However, the official press makes explicit the exchange about education, culture, sport, the preservation of heritage and the environment, in addition to Health, with special emphasis not only on staff contracts, but also on those for medical students. There is no mention, however, of the shipments of fuel – presumably free – nor of the frustrated agreement on the Mayan Train, with which Mexico hoped to import 200,000 tons of stone from the Island but the total remained at just 7,000, without counting the human and environmental damage of López Obrador’s star project.

Mexico hoped to import 200,000 tons of stone from the Island but the total remained at just 7,000, without counting the human and environmental damage of López Obrador’s star project

At the opening of the Chetumal station, the president-elect starred this Sunday in her last official act prior to the inauguration. “I’m ready, I’m strong. The people of Mexico are ready to start the second stage of the ’fourth transformation’,” said Sheinbaum, referring to the term with which the political project of the ruling party is known.

“In recent months, I have witnessed how beautiful it is to see a president merge with his people and how exciting it is to see a people merge with their president,” she said at the end of her so-called “transition tour.”

“I’m not idolizing you, but I’m proud to say that you are among the greats and that for millions of Mexicans you are the best president our country has ever had,” said Sheinbaum of her predecessor, before praising his achievements: “a new economic model, the foundations of a new judiciary, the foundations of a new thought” and “a politicized and cheerful people,” among others.

“The Mayan Train in the face of all adversities is a reality,” Sheinbaum celebrated, and she said that, contrary to criticism, “the train means the preservation of the largest ecological rainforest after the Amazon.”

López Obrador, who highlighted the role of the Armed Forces in the infrastructure, joked that its inauguration will probably mean vacations for the military workers. “Don’t believe me too much because the new president is very hardworking, and I’m sure she already knows what the trains from the north are going to do.”

The flagship project of the Mexican president contemplates 1,554 kilometers with seven sections that cross five states and 36 municipalities with a total of 34 stations. Sheinbaum announced in July the creation of two new passenger train lines, one departing from Mexico City to Guadalajara, and the other to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, on the border with the United States, which she described as a “Mayan Train to the north.”

Hundreds of migrants and refugees asked her this Sunday for protection from the violence they suffer

The new president must, however, look at her borders as a priority. There, hundreds of migrants and refugees asked her this Sunday for protection from the violence they suffer.

During a procession with religious leaders from the Catholic Church, the attendees of the 110th World Day of the Migrant and Refugee in Tapachula, Chiapas, called on the Mexican Government to provide free and safe passage for migrants to be able to reach the border with the United States.

Evelin Leonel Villanueva, from Honduras, requested support from Sheinbaum to expedite appointments for interviews in the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (Comar), since they have been delayed by six months.

“We feel insecure but also safe with the Mexicans who help us, who can give us free passage to the border and enable transportation for low-income people. It is difficult for us to safely reach the border to be with our family,” she said.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cienfuegos, Cuba, a City that Dies at Sunset

The corners and parks, which used to be filled with children playing soccer and adults playing dominoes, remain empty. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 29 September 2024 — The monotony in the streets of Cienfuegos after three in the afternoon would have been unimaginable a few years ago. The corners and parks, which were filled with children playing soccer and adults playing dominoes, remain empty this Saturday. Procedures and purchases are carried out before noon, and later, when the city goes dark, only beggars and stray dogs remain on the streets.

“I have lived in this city for 71 years, and I’ve never seen it as dead as I do now. People speak ill of the era of capitalism in Cuba, but before, on this same street, one could eat and drink what he wanted,” says Julio, an old man who has paid 20 pesos for a small cup of coffee on the outskirts of the El Español hotel. “This cup is the size of a pea with water, but retirement doesn’t give me enough to pay for a real coffee.”

Gabriela shares the feeling that time is moving slowly and with nothing interesting to do / 14ymedio

Julio complains that, as soon as it’s noon, even the State shops close. As he explains, the variety of entertainment options in the city is zero, and if there were any, it is likely that people wouldn’t be able to afford them. Olivia accompanies the old man, whose visit to the office of the national continue reading

telecommunications company Etecsa – in the middle of working hours – was fruitless. “These people close at 4:00 in the afternoon, and on Saturdays they don’t open until 11:30 in the morning. With my work schedule it’s impossible for me to take care of any business with them,” he emphasizes.

According to Olivia, until some time ago, institutions were still open at 7:00 p.m., but the pandemic was the ideal pretext to restrict working hours and make life even more difficult for the people of Cienfuegos.

“It’s already impossible to go out at night because of the blackouts and the total lack of public transport. Added to that are the few cultural options and the very high price of any product. You can’t even go out for a walk with your family,” the woman reports.

Julio complains that, as soon as it’s noon, even the State shops close / 14ymedio

Julio knows very well what Olivia is talking about. “In my time people went to dance, shared some time at the Casa de la Música or had fun in the Tropisur cabaret. If you were bored, you took a walk around the Jagua hotel or any recreational center in Punta Gorda. Today the only thing we can do is remember that time,” he says.

Gabriela, Julio’s granddaughter, who attends university, is not interested in the activities her grandfather did in his youth. However, she shares the feeling that time moves slowly and with nothing interesting to do. “What am I going to do? Sit in El Prado until they turn on the power at dawn? Go out on a Sunday to find everything closed and the street empty? Expose myself to being assaulted and robbed in the middle of the darkness of the boardwalk? That’s why I prefer to stay home,” she says.

At the age of 21, the young woman hopes to be able to leave Cuba soon with the US Humanitarian Parole Program that her father arranged for her from the United States. “When I leave I’m going to take advantage of the time and go to the movies, which I’ve never done, and to discos and amusement parks. But while I’m here, it’s better to entertain myself on my cell phone,” she says.

Procedures and purchases are made before noon, and later, when the power goes out, only beggars and stray dogs remain on the streets / 14ymedio

Gabriela’s opinion is shared by many Cienfuegeros, who leave the streets as soon as the sun goes down. “If you go to an ATM to withdraw cash, there is no money. If you want to have a soft drink, it’s hot. There is such great negativity and incompetence that coexistence is impossible,” Gabriela complains, with the uncertainty of not knowing how she will get home, near the Tulipán neighborhood.

The Terror of ‘Motorinas’ Spreads in Havana

For fear of the them exploding, a private parking lot prohibits recharging batteries

Whoever reads the sign does not take long to notice the reason for the ’apartheid’ between ’motorinos’ and cars / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, September 30, 2024 — The massive arrival of electric motorbikes or “motorinos” to Cuba, first from China and now from several Latin American countries, has been accompanied by multiple accidents caused by the explosion of batteries in private homes. Entire families have died in those fires, and many Cubans are afraid of the motorinos, considering them to be time bombs.

“It is forbidden to charge electric motorcycles,” says a sign on the door of a private parking lot on Rodríguez Street, in the Havana neighborhood of Luyanó. Whoever who reads it, does not take long to notice the reason for the apartheid, which divides the plugs between motorcycles and the rest of the vehicles.

“People are terrified of those motorinos because lately many have exploded,” says Raquel, a neighbor of the parking lot who remembers having recently seen the news about one of these accidents on social networks. The explosion she is talking about occurred in the capital itself last Wednesday, when one of those vehicles caused a fire at number 59 Picota Street, between Jesús María and Acosta, in Old Havana. continue reading

Last Wednesday one of those ’motorinos’ caused a fire at number 59 Picota Street

In addition to the charred furniture, the destroyed objects and the smoke stains on the facade of the building, a 60-year-old man, identified as Lázaro Calzadilla, lost his life.

Before that accident, another explosion in the Diez de Octubre neighborhood in August ended the life of a family of four – including a baby – with only a 13-year-old girl surviving.

Experience has shown Cubans that you don’t need to tamper with the battery, overuse the motorbike or overheat the circuits for one of them to explode unexpectedly and destroy everything around it. “I understand that they don’t forbid them from entering the parking lot,” Raquel reflects, “but if they don’t show up, it’s better.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Che’ and Fidel, Two of the Poor People Who Attend the Food Kitchen of the Catholic Church in Santa Clara

Dozens of people come to the old garage opposite the cathedral every Sunday, to be given food

The humanitarian association Cáritas supports help programmes in Cuba, such as nurseries, food kitchens and refuges / Cáritas Santa Clara

14ymedio, Santa Clara, 19 September 2024 – For five months, a garage opposite the Santa Clara cathedral has filled up with people in need of food. In two rooms inside the old ’storage’ – the name [in English] by which these old installations owned by the Catholic church are known by everyone in the city – a dinner is served up, comprising whatever is available. A layered salchichon sausage with salad, picadillo with mushrooms or olives or rice. The place is soon buzzing with activity. Everyone begins to chat. It happens each Sunday.

Cáritas, the Catholic humanitarian association, provides the food. It’s paid for by donations which “appear”, coming mostly from the German association Help for the Church in Need. It’s open to anyone, in theory, and in practice there are dozens who turn up – 60 or 70 people for whom the State has many names but few solutions: vagrants, the vulnerable, beggars. “They come here principally in search of food, but we also chat with them and make them feel welcomed”, a priest from the diocese tells 14ymedio.

A few diners have become celebrities in their own right, like “el Che”, a beggar who dresses in a military jacket and beret and sports a beard, and who, not infrequently, is the centre of attention, says the priest. “He gets together with two brothers”, he says, not without irony, “who, it just so happens, are called Fidel and Raúl”. There is limited space in the concrete garage, but generally there is a warm atmosphere at the dining tables.

Feeding the poor of Santa Clara isn’t a new project for the city’s Catholic church.

Feeding the poor of Santa Clara isn’t a new project for the city’s Catholic continue reading

church. There have been many initiatives, all of them looked down upon by the local authorities. “It began when a number of young people from the diocese went out into the city giving out food bags but it didn’t please the authorities and ended up being suspended. Now this is being done again, thanks to various donations to Cáritas, but on the condition that it’s done with as little publicity as possible”, says the cleric.

In fact there is little of this activity to be seen on social media. Any image, in the hands of the authorities, could be used to monitor or even obstruct the project. The church, he says, continues to be closely watched by State Security, which, in an already familiar practice, “seems” to have informers in the parish, in cultural centres and in the diocese Training Centre, where courses on the margin of official indoctrination are still being taught.

Just like the country as a whole, the diocese’s humanitarian work is going through difficult times. Ever since the government’s Tarea Ordenamiento (’Ordering Task’) law, the church’s purchasing power has suffered an almost mortal blow and cutbacks have been very noticeable. Nevertheless, charity continues to be a priority and its assistance programmes – the already known distribution of basic supplies that they carry out in no small number of parishes, as well as the food kitchens and the nurseries – have not ceased to function.

Just like the country as a whole, the diocese’s humanitarian work is going through difficult times

In other scenarios, such as in the refuges and clinics, run by Corazón Solidario (Caring Heart) in Santa Clara, where they give out prescription medicines to those in need of them, the administering is adequate but also they have to rely upon Cáritas.

Cuban bishops brought this to attention in a letter written at the beginning of September in which they asked for help and support from Spanish catholics. “The situation”, they said, “is worse than that which we saw in the 90’s, in the so-called Special Period“. Emilio Aranguren, president of the Bishops’ Forum, explained that there is a “huge scarcity of basic produce that can only be obtained at exorbitant prices”. There’s also the lack of medical supplies, which causes “the sick to be very much in distress and makes their lives and the lives of the people around them very difficult”.

Nor are there priests available to travel to the island – whose national clergy is in itself already depleted – a lack of which, in practice, means not being able to count upon enough reliable administrators for ecclesiastical projects and pastoral work.

This shortage of clergy is one of the problems which — according to Aranguren, the source interviewed by this newspaper, and two other prelates, Arturo González, vice president of Conference, and the Jesuit priest Juan de Dios Hernández, secretary general — was put to Pope Francis during their visit to the Vatican on 16 September.

The bishops confirmed that they did talk to the Pope about “the difficult reality” in the country

The three bishops have been extremely cautious about discussing the details of that meeting, but in brief announcements to ecclesiastical media they have confirmed that they did talk to the Pope about “the difficult reality” in the country, about which Francis – who has visited Cuba on a number of occasions – has been reluctant to make critical pronouncements.

The Episcopal Conference will hold elections in November and, despite the advanced age of the bishops (almost all being of retirement age and with no youthful replacements in sight) it’s hoped that Aranguren, who has occupied, since 2017, a post that has been in no small way delicate, will not return to the presidency. Nevertheless, the cleric told us in our interview that when it comes to Cuba it’s not impossible that he will have to continue in office.

In search of an official assessment of the Episcopal Conference’s view of the outlook for Cuba, 14ymedio has tried a number of times to contact its executive secretary, the cleric Ariel Suárez. Our calls have, however, not been answered.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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