Translating Cuba – Page 165 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Cuba Siglo 21 Requests Interrogation of the Former Cuban Pilot Who Participated in the Shoot Down of the Brothers to the Rescue Planes

Cuba Siglo 21 says that the case of Luis Raúl González-Pardo, who lives in the United States, “goes beyond the migration issue”

González-Pardo was director of Terminal 2 of José Martí International Airport / Mario J. Penton

14ymedio, Havana, 17 September 2024 — The organization Cuba Siglo 21 pronounced this Tuesday on the case of the former pilot of the Cuban Armed Forces Luis Raúl González-Pardo, who has been living in the United States since April thanks to the Humanitarian Parole program. According to its report, the situation “goes beyond the immigration issue” and must be referred to the Florida Prosecutor’s Office, given the involvement of the former soldier in the shoot down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996.

The Prosecutor’s Office – argues Cuba Siglo 21 – must decide whether to proceed in trying González Pardo for being part of the group of pilots who harassed the unarmed aircraft of the humanitarian organization and killed four people (three Cubans with US citizenship and one resident). “At the very least, he should be interrogated about those facts.”

The issue in question, which the González-Pardo case once again puts into discussion, is the legal defense of “due obedience.” The international community, explains Cuba Siglo 21, does not recognize this allegation, which aims to justify ” first-degree, premeditated murder” with the statement that the person was only following orders.

Both the 13 de Marzo Tugboat sinking and the shooting down of the planes of Hermanos al Rescate were ambushed with premeditation and treachery from intelligence information

The organization gives two recent examples in Cuban history: the shoot down of the planes in 1996 – from which the former pilot cannot detach himself, although he allegedly did not shoot – and, two years earlier, the sinking of the 13 de Marzo tugboat, in which “unarmed Cuban families trying to migrate” died. continue reading

“Both the 13 de Marzo Tugboat sinking and the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes were ambushes with premeditation and treachery from intelligence information previously provided to the Cuban government by its agents and informants. They were not actions of war, but planned homicides. Both acts constitute crimes against humanity that do not expire,” the organization believes.

In the opinion of Cuba Siglo 21, those who boarded the Mig fighter jets – including González-Pardo, who was in number 22 – “left that day ready to kill.” In the recording of the radio communications of the attack, it argues, the former pilot reports that one of the Brothers to the Rescue planes was “in his sights” and that he was waiting for instructions to proceed. This action “leaves no doubt about the intentions that morning of the migrant who now lives peacefully in Jacksonville, Florida.”

“It’s not about intolerance, revenge or resentment, nor about ’settling the score’ with that pilot. What is actually urgent is to bring to trial in this case the very concept of ‘due obedience’ to criminal orders that are almost without exception raised by human rights violators in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and other similar regimes,” summarizes the statement.

This Monday, the independent journalist Mario Pentón tried to communicate with the pilot

This Monday, when independent journalist Mario Pentón tried to communicate with the pilot, González-Pardo claimed that much of what had been said about him in the media was “false.” Then, however, he hung up the phone and deleted his WhatsApp number. He had described his situation as “very difficult.” After a lifetime in the service of the Regime – first as a military pilot and then in civil aviation positions, as director of Terminal 2 of the José Martí International Airport – he had accepted the Humanitarian Parole offered by the United States. “I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do, or if I’m going to give interviews or not, mainly because of some additional situations that I have and that can affect me,” he said.

Pentón also shared this Tuesday an internal document from the US Department of State, obtained by Martí Noticias and dated 2016 – in the midst of the thaw initiated by then-President Barack Obama – in which González-Pardo asks to speed up the US consular interview to grant him a tourist visa for being a “facilitator” of high-level travel and a “key diplomatic contact” when organizing exchanges between the two countries. His visit – to “observe firsthand American culture” – was considered of interest by Washington, so his consular interview was moved up twice.

According to several sources, González-Pardo was the man who was at the controls of the Mig 29 that chased José Basulto

According to several sources, González-Pardo was the man who was at the controls of the Mig 29 that chased José Basulto – the leader of Brothers to the Rescue – to the north of the 24th parallel, in the Straits of Florida. Basulto himself confirmed this information to the military pilot Orestes Lorenzo, who escaped to the United States in 1991 and returned, despite the risks, to pick up his family.

After it became known that Washington gave the go-ahead to the former pilot, a barrage of criticism and questioning about the Cuban migrant has fallen on US authorities.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Whoever Sets Prices in Cuba Has Never Gotten Up at Two in the Morning to Milk a Cow’

The Cuban State pays 15,000 pesos for an animal, processes it and sells it for 60,000 pesos, denounce the producers.

The plan is to convince the peasants to provide more milk to the Empresa de Productos Lácteos(Dairy Products Enterprise) / / Periódico 26

IPS* (via 14ymedio), Havana, 18 September 2024 — Producers in Cuba’s agricultural sector consider that when it comes to producing and marketing food products such as milk and meat, Resolution 275/2024 of the Ministry of Agriculture is increasingly distant from the urgent needs of the country and even more so from the Cuban countryside.

“The fact that a state-owned company pays 38 pesos for a liter of milk does not take into account the costs of producing it or the prices of supplies,” comments farmer Armando Zamora on the regulation that obliges him to sell most of his products to state-owned companies at pre-established prices.

In this regard, he gives the following example: “A roll of wire costs between 30,000 and 36,000 Cuban pesos (CUP), about 100 or 120 U.S. dollars, depending on the exchange rate in the informal market, where the value of 1 dollar is around 300 CUP.

“The resolution says that the priority is the state order, but the price they [state-owned companies] pay, compared to the 100 CUP paid in the informal market for the same liter, makes the pocket decide, not the conscience,” he adds. continue reading

“The price they [state-owned companies] pay, compared to the 100 CUP paid in the informal market for the same liter, makes the pocket decide, not the conscience”

After insisting that he sees no prospects for 2025, the worker linked to livestock farming for 19 years reflects: “Whoever sets those prices has never gotten up at two in the morning to milk a cow”.

Another long-standing unresolved problem is the difference between what the state-owned company pays the producer for beef and what the industry earns.

According to Zamora, the state companies “pay 15,000 pesos for an animal and when they process and sell it, they get 60,000 pesos. The one who spent years raising it, planting feed and taking care of it so that it would not be stolen is the one who earns the least… Without incentives, there will be no greater production”.

Amid a severe production crisis, dependence on imports and high food prices, most of the opinions warn of the negative aspects of the new resolution of the Ministry of Agriculture, published in the Official Gazette on September 4.

Designed to organize and control the marketing of agricultural, forestry and tobacco goods by 2025, it proposes to “increase supply to all destinations through the state channels and link production with the marketing process.

It applies to all actors in the productive structure of the agricultural system: agricultural cooperatives, grassroots enterprises and business units, micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (state-owned, private and mixed), landowners and other legitimate owners of land and agricultural and forestry producers.

The Resolution calls for “increasing the supply to all destinations through the state channel, as well as linking production with the commercialization process”

In the contracting process – the signing of contracts made by state entities to purchase agricultural products – not only are new economic actors engaged in productive activities incorporated, but also entities that process or market agricultural, forestry and tobacco products.

More than 79% of Cuba’s agricultural land is state-owned, however only 32.2% is exploited, with low production levels in most crops: rice (22.7%), vegetables (16.8%), corn (16.3%), root crops (9.8%), beans (9.2%), fruit trees (8.3%), according to data from the National Statistics and Information Office (Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información).

Conversely, private, individual farmers or cooperative members produce more than 75% of the food sold on the island.

The Credit and Service Cooperatives, which operate 36.3% of the agricultural area, account for the majority of private production (except for rice) of fruit trees (83.4%), beans (79.4%), root crops (76.7%) and vegetables (75.5%).

According to the report presented to the Cuban parliament in July of this year about the inspection of the Ministry of the Food Industry, there are breaches in the contracts with 9,100 food producers.

According to the Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso, most agricultural production is affected due to causes such as shortages of fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, fuels and animal feed.

According to the report presented to the Cuban parliament in July of this year about the inspection of the Ministry of the Food Industry, there are breaches in the contracts with 9,100 food producers

Amid this scenario, the new measures reinforce the priority in the contracting that state enterprises make with the different actors of the agro-productive system, aimed at satisfying state demand, and supporting the plan of the economy and the national production balances.

“What kind of contracting for 2025 are we going to talk about if the 2024 contract still has not been paid,” says a management member of a local agricultural business unit in Havana, who prefers to remain anonymous.

As on previous occasions, the publication of measures regulating the operation of both the state and the private sector has given rise to comments from the economic point of view.

“The new resolution of the Ministry of Agriculture could be the worst economic policy blunder in Cuba since the reorganization. It is based on the erroneous diagnosis that inadequate contracting is a significant cause of the weak supply response capacity of the agricultural sector”, says economist Pedro Monreal in his account on X.

The new resolution of the Ministry of Agriculture could be the worst blunder in Cuba’s economic policy since the reorganization

For this analyst, it “inverts the dynamics of the connection between production and distribution. In reality, it is the supply failure derived from the lack of supplies and infrastructure, low investment levels and dysfunctional markets that originate contracting problems”.

The new rule “expresses the arrogant notion that centralized planning is more effective than the market in ensuring economic calculation (rational distribution of resources). The rule is a variant of forced contracting,” he argues.

Monreal also notes: “In their state-based fabulation, the planners may be increasing uncertainty in Cuba’s largest segment of private activity, which is not only crucial for food security but also the country’s largest employer”.

* Editor’s note: This press release is part of IPS Cuba Special coverage of New economic actors and local development in Cuba (2023-2025).

Translated by LAR

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More Than a Million Cubans Suffer Water Cuts Due to Blackouts and Other Breakdowns

Ten generators donated by China will provide 18 MW to Sancti Spíritus and Cienfuegos when there is fuel

The population relies on ’water thieves’ in the midst of a desperate situation / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, September 18, 2024 — More than a million users are now affected by water cuts in Cuba. In the first week of September the authorities admitted that the figure was about 600,000 people. A few days later, the increase was significant, with an average of 713,000, to which are added “some 300,000 people who receive water from the “pipas,” the tanker trucks, whose cycles can be more than 15 days,” explained Antonio Rodríguez, president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), this Tuesday on State TV’s Round Table program.

The official explained that those who receive the supply by tanker trucks have “in some cases very extended cycles” (low frequency) and summarized the three fundamental problems: the state of the pumping equipment, the lack of electricity and the breaks in the main pipes.

“At the moment, 40% of the affectations are from broken pumping equipment and 39% from lack of electricity, and that has been happening since October,” he summarized. Rodríguez explained that they are working together with the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (UNE) to minimize the problems caused by the lack of fuel. The main task is for the electric generators to relieve the blackouts; that’s why the INRH has increased its supply capacity from 36% to 72%, but, he says, there is not always enough fuel for them to work. continue reading

The main task is for the electric generators to relieve the blackouts; that’s why the INRH has increased its supply capacity from 36% to 72%, but, he says, there is not always fuel for them to work

In this context and after a deficit of more than 1,000 MW reported yesterday at peak hour, the authorities announced that the Communist Party of China had donated ten generators that will go to Sancti Spíritus and Cienfuegos, although they will barely provide 18 MW, and only as long as they have the required fuel.

As for the pumping equipment, the data are devastating. There are 3,674 pumping stations of which 3,381 work. There are 1,200 that are more than 10 years old, 229 that are not “in position” [due to lack of a pumping source] and 209 that “do not meet the technical requirements of expenditure and load, but they are the ones we have and that are working,” he said.

They are joined by 481 reserve pumping stations, of which only 127 work, an added problem because that prevents maintenance to the equipment with its consequent deterioration. “By not having spare pumps when the main one breaks, until we comply with the transfer cycle and take them to the workshops and repair them, all that time we have to try to supply those who receive water with the “pipas,” and we know the difficulties we have with fuel,” he stressed.

As a result, the whole country is suffering from a lack of drinking water and sanitation, with Pinar del Río, Havana, Las Tunas and Holguín in the lead, according to the Institute’s data.

Rodríguez, however, has the same hope as his partner in the battle, the Minister of Energy and Mines, and he has trust in solar power. This Tuesday he reported that between 2023 and 2024, 1,200 pumps have arrived in the country, of which 866 are “for the change in the energy matrix,” he said, referring to photovoltaics. There are 200 of them that have not yet been assembled, almost all of this type.

The whole country is suffering from a lack of drinking water and sanitation, with Pinar del Río, Havana, Las Tunas and Holguín in the lead

There are 1,312 pumping stations that need less than 10 kilowatts. There are 866 on the Island, among which 678 are in place but only 91 provide service. However, Rodríguez congratulated himself because 350,000 people are supplied thanks to them, “especially in isolated communities.”

In addition, there are 300 that use hybrid technology (fed by the National Electric Service and by solar). “Eight stations are planned for the first stage in Pinar del Río, 15 in Sancti Spíritus, 16 in Holguín and 9 in Cienfuegos. For the second stage, 15 are planned for Villa Clara and Aguas Turquino in Santiago,” he added.

The evening broadcast had a specific section dedicated to Havana, the province that concentrates not only more inhabitants but also more economic activity and political power, and, most worryingly for the regime, where protests are more easily ignited.

“On the night of 21 July 2024, an electrical failure occurred in the high tension lines that connect the Cuenca Sur reservoir with the Central System. This caused a sudden stop and, as a result, several hydraulic valves malfunctioned, which broke the driver and caused breakage in four pumping stations from the well field. This was the beginning of a complex period in the water supply service to the capital,” Rodríguez said to explain the nightmarish weeks that the capital is experiencing.

According to his calculations, there have been more than 199,000 inhabitants affected by the hydraulic network, in addition to 12,500 who receive water from “pipas,” whose cycles have lengthened due to the shortage of vehicles and fuel. “Today, the affectation from networks is 67,295 people and from lengthened “pipa” cycles, 7,551 inhabitants, for a total of 74,846 affected inhabitants,” he said. The west (La Lisa and Marianao) is the most affected part, but just this Tuesday the problems spread to East Havana, “which belongs to another system.”

According to his calculations, there have been more than 199,000 inhabitants affected by the hydraulic network, in addition to 12,500 who receive the water from “pipas”

Of the 279 stations in the capital, 22 do not have pumping equipment, and 77 do not meet the necessary requirements. Despite this, Rodríguez announced equipment installations that, he promised, will improve the situation in the very short term, in addition to medium-term investments for the same purpose. “Due to the blockade*, many times, even if we have the equipment in the ports, it is difficult for us to ship it,” he said, although Cuba has “a line of credit for the acquisition of new equipment for Havana this year.”

Judging by the data offered by Rodríguez, the economy is not at this precise moment a problem for the medium term, although the lack of workers is. “The average salary here is only 3,500 pesos, but there are four companies with salaries below 3,000 pesos, which deprives us of people who know how to operate the drivers. We are working to find a solution to this issue.”

The situation of the three factories on the Island that make water pipes is good: “We have enough raw materials and pipes for the investment program and the maintenance works,” he said, “although we have to import supplies for large drivers, mainly steel.”

“This year we have a plan of 3.2 billion pesos for investments and maintenance. At the end of August we have 119 percent compliance, and we have now received approval for 600 million pesos to add to these works. However, these plans are costing us up to 30% more than in previous years, due to the increase in the prices for products and services,” he explained.

The Island has installed 181 kilometers of water mains so far and has completed 204 works, he stressed, and he added that “there is no province in the country where we do not have some kind of action, but the problems are great.”

Rodríguez displayed the water balance with graphs showing the amount of rainfall and the filling of reservoirs on the Island, which is not a real obstacle at the moment. Authorities estimate that there are about 39,000 people affected by the drought, a small number in relation to other causes. He did consider problematic the loss of water from leaks, more than 5,000 in the country, of which 2,000 are in Havana.

*Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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’Bancarización’ — Banking Reform — and Lack of Resources Complicate Payments to State Musicians in Cuba

Every month, the members of the economic department of Sancti Spíritus face “old-fashioned” payments, with pencil and paper

The group Parranda Típica Espirituana is one of those affected by the non-payments / Escambray

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 18 September 2024 — A dilapidated “Frankenstein-style” computer, obsolete programs and a terrible internet connection are just the tip of the iceberg of the problems suffered by the Music and Entertainment Marketing Company in Sancti Spíritus. The bancarización [banking reform] link in the province has been broken on the weakest side: the wages of workers, who rarely receive what the State owes them on time.

The problem is not only the technological obsolescence of the company, but also its “historic debts” – 658,000 pesos of overdue wages – an even more complex panorama since mandatory electronic payments were decreed last year. Despite the fact that the musicians had to have bank cards processed by the entity, it has not even met that basic requirement. For those who do have them, payment rarely arrives on time. The summary of one of the employees is pithy: “We are always uncertain of when we will get paid.”

According to the Sancti Spíritus newspaper, Escambray, the company hit rock bottom in 2022 and since then has not raised its head, “despite showing signs of economic recovery,” which the newspaper does not define. Today, however, it can barely support its administrative expenses and pay what the contracts stipulate. continue reading

Everything has been “stumbles and falls” in the Marketing Company’s attempts to execute the State’s guidelines

These factors meant that, rather than arriving late to bancarización, it never had a chance of taking the leap requested by the Central Bank of Cuba. Since then, everything has been “stumbles and falls” in its attempts to execute the State’s directions. To give an idea, the newspaper mentions the case of Antonio Sosa, a skilled musician from Sancti Spíritus, who has not been paid for three months because the company has not sent him a bank card.

Sosa doesn’t have too many illusions about the plastic: even when it reaches his hands, he’ll have to figure out “how to get the money.” The lines to extract cash from ATMs and the numerous difficulties for its availability in the banks do not augur well for the artist.

The Marketing Company has been “very late” when it comes to applying bancarización, says Escambray. It should have prepared for the delivery of bank cards six months ago. It did not do it, it says, because of its characteristic lack of “demand.”

Interviewed by the newspaper, the leaders of the entity defend themselves. They assure that 90% of musicians have cards, despite the fact that some made mistakes entering their data into the system. To that must be added the “Frankenstein” device, an old computer with unknown parts that is not up to par – they allege – or having the national software to process wages.

Every month, the members of the economic department face “old-fashioned” payments, with pencil and paper, which delays all the procedures. The new computer will not arrive soon, because they have to “develop an investment plan that gradually meets those and other needs.” It is the problem of belonging to the State’s “business system,” concludes the economist Caridad Ruiz. “We have to finance ourselves, and today we do not have the financial coverage to assume that expense,” she regrets.

“There’s no excuse for doing the payroll by hand. Here people work under the gun”

Others, such as the deputy director of the Marketing Company, do not agree with this system and ask for more resources. “There’s no excuse for doing the payrolls by hand. Here people work under the gun. Under these conditions it’s impossible to achieve anything else. Musicians and workers demand their right to be paid on time,” he says.

Gone are the days when subsidized musicians – paid a fixed salary as a gesture of “State protection” – received their salary in the first four days of the month. Guillermo González, director of the Parranda Típica Espirituana, complains of having lost count of “the last time he was paid on time.” First, the money arrived between the 10th and the 15th. Now it’s “when they pay it.”

His group hears one justification after another from the managers, such as the lack of staff in the economic departments of artistic companies. But there are never solutions.

Among the half dozen managers interviewed by Escambray, not a single one could promise an improvement. The problem – described in detail – has no end in sight, and the bosses only know how to repeat as a litany what their superiors in Havana tell them: “We have to continue working.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘It’s As if They Hate the People,’ Cubans Complain About the State Electric Company’s Blackouts

For this Tuesday, the state forecasts a deficit of 1,030 megawatts during peak hours

Many businesses, both private and State, have not been able to open in recent days / EFE

14ymedio, Madrid, September 17, 2024 — Many Cuban neighborhoods will suffer from blackouts this Tuesday. The forecast of the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) once again exceeds 1,000 megawatts (MW). This has put the citizens of the Island, who live hopelessly pending information on power cuts, on a war footing.

“This is no way to live. Yesterday they shut down the power practically all day, and for today we expect the same,” says Norma, a woman from Sancti Spíritus who lives in the provincial capital. “This hits us very hard with the heat,” she adds.

From Holguín, another city besieged by constant cuts, Ernesto tells this newspaper that lately there are few nights when he can sleep. “They cut the power from 6:00 am to 12:00 pm, from 6:00 pm to 12:00 am and then from 3:00 am to 6:00 am. This is crazy. Most of the shops in the city aren’t open, and the cafeterias that don’t have generators cannot provide service to the public,” says Ernesto, who stayed awake yesterday fanning his son so that he could rest.

Between blackouts and the suffocating heat, both Norma and Ernesto are losing hope that the situation will improve

As the days go by between the blackouts and the suffocating heat, both Norma and Ernesto lose hope that the situation will improve. “I know that today they’ll give us another story, but when you least expect it, they will take away the electricity again,” Ernesto concludes. continue reading

He’s not wrong. According to the State’s daily report, the national electricity system (SEN) gave only 45 minutes of relief yesterday. “At 7:48 a.m. yesterday morning the service was restored, and from 8:33 a.m. the service began to be affected again due to a generation capacity deficit, which it has not been possible to restore,” the UNE indicated.

If on Monday the maximum “affectation” in the peak hours – the early hours of the night – was 973 MW, this Tuesday the deficit will be 960 MW (there will be an availability of 2,240 MW compared to a maximum demand of 3,200 MW), which will finally affect a total of 1,030 MW.

The UNE also reminds the population that five units of the thermoelectric power plants are stopped due to breakdowns: unit 8 of the Máximo Gómez, in Mariel (Artemisa); unit 5 of the 10 de Octubre, in Nuevitas (Camagüey); unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez, in Felton (Holguín); unit 5 of the Renté, in Santiago de Cuba; and unit 1 of the Ernesto Guevara, in Santa Cruz del Norte (Mayabeque). However, it reports that the latter will enter the SEN in the “peak hour” with 70 MW.

Likewise, they report that 59 distributed generation plants are out of service due to lack of fuel.

With this scenario, social media users have not held back either, and this Tuesday they flooded the daily report of the UNE with almost 400 comments, most of them negative and even against the Government. “There is no fuel for thermoelectric plants, but there is fuel for [Prime Minister] Marrero’s, [President] Canel’s and [Raul Castro’s grandson] El Cangrejo’s* cars. The yachts and fleets of cars of the Castros do not lack fuel either,” said Raúl Eduardo Rojas, from Pinar del Río.

“Now all we need is the breakdown of the Guiteras plant to see how they run to get the fuel that suddenly appears,” says Amado Amed Díaz Seijo from the same province. And he wonders: “I would like to know what they have done with all the dollars for fuel collection, because it’s been a while now, and everything is the same or worse.”

Dainy Ramos has power from eight to twelve at night, and they shut it off again until after four in the morning: “What child can get up for school or what person can get up with encouragement to go to work? They are killing us,” the young woman lamented.

Bobby Cabanas, retired, also expressed himself: “They are abusing the people; it’s as if they hate the people.”

Others, for their part, called for a true, radical change: “The highest leadership of this country must resign. They have been running this country for 65 years, and there is no progress of any kind. Don’t let them cling to power; let’s have a popular referendum.”

Off the internet, at street level, the inconveniences also multiply. “There is no light anywhere,” complained a taxi driver who had spent the morning in the capital driving through large areas, such as Marianao, El Vedado and Diez de Octubre. At street crossings, the extinguished traffic lights were a sign of the crisis, with the consequent danger of accidents.

*Translator’s note: El Cangrejo, “The Crab” is the popular nickname for Raúl Castro’s grandson, who apparently is clumsy, and is also his grandfather’s bodyguard.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Venezuela Is Heading Towards the ‘Real Socialism’ of Cuba

The control exercised by fear is inconceivable in a society in which what is not expressly allowed is a crime

People run during clashes between opponents and members of the Bolivarian National Guard, in a demonstration after the presidential elections, in Caracas / EFE

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 15 September 2024 — During my almost twelve years of residence in Venezuela, I had opportunities that I never enjoyed in my longed-for Cuba. There were problems, some very serious, but the framework of rights and freedoms that we all enjoyed generated spaces for rectification.

What I liked the most was freedom of the press and open discussions in a framework of cordiality and respect. Coming from the absolute social control existing in my country to an environment of tolerance without fanaticism was an invaluable change

There was no censorship, let alone self-censorship. Each scribe said what he had in mind, including those who warned of a disastrous future and were considered prophets of doom.

With the passage of time, I learned how politely inclusive Venezuelan society was. I met old guerrillas, people who had been allied with Fidel Castro to destroy national democracy, and, when they realized what that guy would bring to their country, broke with the tyrant. continue reading

Each scribe said what he thought, including those who warned of a disastrous future and were considered prophets of doom

Most were eminent leaders, such as Américo Martin and Teodoro Petkoff, among others, who did not take long to denounce and oppose Hugo Chávez’s proposal to castrate Venezuela.

There were sympathizers and allies of Castroism in the news media and many organizations. However, my journalistic collaborations were never censored, although I cannot say the same for other entities, such as the Ateneo de Caracas, where Dr. Silvia Meso was told that a documentary critical of Fidel and the Revolution would never be screened there.

There were newspapers and television stations that did not like to spread the news that the exiled Cuban community was proclaiming, and personalities who canonized Fidel Castro in life.

There were Castro supporters even in the Armed Forces, as indicated in the WLRN Opinions program by retired general Carlos Peñaloza. Hugo Chávez, said the high-ranking officer, was protected by other superior soldiers; consequently, there were few moles.

Unfortunately for Venezuelans and the hemisphere, those who warned about the fifth column of the enemies of democracy were not wrong.

Hugo Chávez, said the high-ranking officer, was protected by other superior military personnel; consequently, there were few moles

Venezuela’s present is much more chaotic than predicted, and I warn that it can be even more serious if the president-elect, Edmundo González, a refugee in Spain, does not assume the position for which he was elected by the majority of the people.

Nicolas Maduro, Diosdado Cabello and the rest of the Janissaries* will be forced to change all the government and state paraphernalia, imposing “real socialism” – the Cuban kind – as the only method that will relatively guarantee them the preservation of power.

There are few countries that have suffered a totalitarian regime with the type of real socialism established by the Soviets from 1917, even fewer than those crushed by the Castro variant, one of the cruelest that can be considered, similar to North Korea or the Albania of Enver Hoxha, another bloodthirsty tyrant who ruled his country for 41 years, almost as long as Fidel Castro at 49 years.

Totalitarianism extinguishes the most elementary notion of justice and proscribes the enjoyment of freedoms, in such a way that the most complacent and ignorant subject realizes that everything has changed after it establishes itself. I emphasize this because many citizens do not understand, until they lose them, the invaluable greatness of the insignificant spaces they enjoy – the “little things,” as Joan Manuel Serrat would say.

Totalitarianism extinguishes the most elementary notion of justice and proscribes the enjoyment of freedoms

Sectarianism and intolerance will lead society to a state of perpetual tension. Civil society organizations, including trade unions, professional groups and other associations will become part of the gigantic transmission belt that will move the new state.

Economic activity depends on political interests. The owners will become the proletariat. Repression will be a part of the new state. The control exercised by fear is inconceivable in a society in which what is not expressly allowed is a crime.

Political parties will be declared illegal; there will be no elections, but there will be votes. Education will become a weapon of intimidation and control when private and religious schools disappear, assuming the characteristics of a State theocracy, since its leaders are now the new gods.

*Translator’s note: The Janissaries were the troops who protected the Sultan in Ottoman Turkey. The term also means “devoted allies and followers.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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More Than 208,000 Cubans Arrived in the United States This Year

In August 2024, 11,744 Cubans arrived in the United States / EFE

14ymedio, Havana, 17 September 2024 — The figures for the exodus of Cubans are sounding the alarm again. Since October 1, 2023 – when fiscal year 2024 began in the United States – the Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) registered the arrival of 208,308 migrants from the Island. The number exceeds last year, when 200,287 people arrived during the same period.

Despite the constant flow of migrants, the data updated by the US authorities and published this Monday indicate that August has been the month in which the fewest Cubans arrived, only 11,744 people. In fact, this decrease in arrivals has been a constant since the past months of May (18,984), June (17,561) and July (15,642).

The decrease in the figures, according to CBP Commissioner Troy Miller, is due to “compliance with the law and the consequences for illegal entry.” In June, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order that restricts access to asylum for those who enter the country irregularly. “Border arrests have decreased by more than 50%,” a statement said. continue reading

Between January and August 29, Cuba has received 1,046 deportees from different countries. In April 2023, deportation flights resumed, mainly for people considered “inadmissible” after being detained on the US border with Mexico.

The fishing boat in which 43 Cuban rafters arrived at Sombrero beach this Tuesday / X/@USBPChiefMIP

In the last week of August, the United States deported 48 Cubans – 43 men and 5 women – on a flight to the Island. Among them were seven rafters. One of the migrants, the Ministry of the Interior reported, was “detained in Cuba because he was wanted by the police.”

The same report indicates that a total of 111,000 Cubans have benefited from the Humanitarian Parole Program promoted by the US Government since its entry into force in January 2023.

The statistics were released one day before 43 rafters made landfall at Playa Sombrero, in Cayo Marathon. The Border Patrol put them in custody for deportation, according to officer Andrew Scharnweber.

The Border Patrol warned the rafters, who made the crossing in a fishing boat named Zeno, that they could “face criminal charges.” Likewise, “they will not be eligible to apply for asylum” and will be prohibited from entering US territory for at least five years.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘If the Situation Continues Like This, People Won’t Be Able To Take It Anymore’ Warns a Recently Released 11J Political Prisoner

After being released from Guamajal prison in Santa Clara city, former prisoner José Rodríguez Herrada, 52, was welcomed with joy at his home by family and friends.

José Rodríguez Herrada, sentenced to three years and six months for participating in the mass protests in Caibarién, Villa Clara / Courtesy

14ymedio, Havana, 15 September 2024 — José Rodríguez Herrada, sentenced to three years and six months for participating in the mass protests in Caibarién, Villa Clara, on 11 July 2021, was discharged from prison on Friday. After his release from Guamajal prison in Santa Clara city, the 52-year-old ex-convict was joyfully welcomed home by family and friends.

Rodriguez Herrada, who before his arrest worked as a bricklayer, considers that the reasons to demonstrate are still present in Cuba: “If the situation continues like this, people will not be able to stand it any longer, although there is also a lot of fear because of the repression,” he warns in a telephone conversation with 14ymedio. “My town of Caibarién is much worse, there is no water, you have to walk around with a bag of money to buy food, the streets are destroyed, the houses are falling apart.”

Convicted under the crime of public disorder, Rodriguez Herrada’s appeal was rejected and he had to spend almost the entirety of his sentence behind bars. “I got out four months early because I was entitled to it, not because they were kind to me, or anything like that,” he explained to this newspaper regarding his stay in Section 5 of the Guamajal Men’s Prison.

I got out four months early, because I was entitled to it, not because they were kind to me, or anything like that,” he says

His time in prison was full of hard times, as he explains. In January 2022, Rodríguez Herrada carried out a hunger strike in the Villa Clara prison called “El Pre.” With his fasting, the prisoner demanded the nullification of the testimonies against him provided by prosecution witnesses in the trial held in November 2021, considering them false and fabricated in order to convict him. continue reading

According to sentence 137 of 2021, to which this newspaper had access, the head of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) unit of Caibarién, Ariel López Águila and Yandier Moreno Urbay, a Political Officer of the Ministry of the Interior in the territory, assured the Court that José Rodríguez Herrada, together with activists Carlos Michael Morales and Javier Delgado Torna led a large group of people who “shouted slogans against the Government” and incited other neighbors to join the protest.

Although the three defendants acknowledged their participation in the demonstration, they did not admit to having been the main protagonists. They only “joined a group of young people who had already initiated such acts” but their statements were dismissed.

Last March, the Patmos Institute denounced that Rodriguez Herrada had been denied the right to religious assistance. “This past March 18, a religious service was being held there, which they allow every month, and the chief officer of the correctional officers, Israel Lebrán, rejected José Rodríguez Herrada’s right to participate.”

In recent months, several of those convicted for the 11J protests have been released from prison after serving their sentences. Among them is activist Angélica Garrido, who was released on July 10, one day before the third anniversary of the anti-government protests for which she was imprisoned and after having served her sentence in its entirety. In prison remains her sister, writer María Cristina Garrido, who still has to serve four of the seven years of her sentence.

You have to walk around with a bag of money to buy food, the streets are destroyed, and the houses are falling to pieces

Carlos Michel Morales Rodríguez, an activist and independent journalist, was released from prison last March after spending two years and ten months behind bars.

Also released from prison in January of this year was political prisoner Yusmely Moreno González, sentenced to three years in prison for also participating in the 11J demonstrations, which in her case took place in the town of Surgidero de Batabanó, in the province of Mayabeque.

“Freedom on completion,” so read the brief document Moreno González received upon her discharge from the Villa Delicia work camp in Havana, where she had been transferred after spending most of her sentence in the Western Women’s Prison, also known as El Guatao.

During the third anniversary of 11J, the Madrid-based NGO Prisoners Defenders used the occasion to detail that in the last three years, they have accounted for a total of 1,728 political prisoners. Of these, “150 were listed as political prisoners at the beginning of July 2021 and 1,578 have been new additions to the list during these three years, while there are 611 among the total monitored by our organization who have since served their sentences in their entirety.”

Translated by LAR

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Cuban Former Spy Gerardo Hernández Regrets Young People’s Lack of Interest in the CDR

Hernández proposes installing security cameras on the blocks to replace the snitches

The elderly from the neighborhood and old members of the CDR founded by Castro remain / EFE

14ymedio, Havana, 17 September 2024 — Former Cuban spy Gerardo Hernandez argued on Monday that the organization he coordinates – the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) – is not, as everything seems to indicate, anachronistic. However, fewer and fewer people , especially young people, want to take on leadership positions in the country’s more than 138,000 neighborhoods. “Who takes on the tasks of the committees?” he cried, when interviewed by Bohemia magazine.

“When you approach someone to take up a position on a committee, the answer is usually that after working eight hours there is not enough time to get involved in the organization’s tasks, because they have to cook – not only women, sometimes men too. If you go to a student, they tell you that the university takes up a lot of their time and they can’t get involved in community tasks either,” he explains.

There remain the elders of the neighborhood, old cadres of the CDRs founded by Castro and for whom the ex-spy promises a new splendor. Now 64 years after their foundation, however, the CDRs seem to have lost all function and the ex-spy attempts to recall it: “It is not idle to say that it is a privilege for any country in the world to have on the blocks, in the neighborhoods, an organization that, no matter how many difficulties we have in its functioning – good, regular or bad – offers the facility of being able to pick up a phone to call one of our leaders in any municipality.” continue reading

“When you approach someone to take a position on a committee, the answer is usually that after working eight hours there is not enough time to get involved in the tasks of the organization.”

The speaker is a “hero of the Republic of Cuba,” Bohemia reminds readers, and his arguments should be heard at the highest levels. “He does not forget that for many, the time of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution had already passed, because there were no more firecrackers, threats, or aggression, but they were also quite inactive,” comments the magazine.

Hernández is concerned about the networks, where he intends to “not be left behind” in terms of propaganda. It is about “positioning labels,” the more profiles the better, so that the organization can be noticed. The usefulness of the CDRs, in his opinion, was demonstrated during the pandemic, when the presidents of each neighborhood were in charge of distributing the few supplies that the State made available to them. It was the moment, Hernández argues, when he discovered the power of the structure.

In the future, he says, they will be in charge of counting voters or gathering useful information for the Government: “Who knows (how many) members of the CDR no longer live there or have reached the age required to exercise their right to vote? Who can provide information about people who have died or are recently incorporated residents?” The former spy says he has the answer: “The CDR, which facilitates the flow of information and its updating more quickly.”

Hernández enthusiastically claims that he will succeed in increasing blood donations and will take charge – with multiple tours around the country – of engaging those who are reluctant. He has already prepared the logo for his “campaign,” the “allegorical song” and a detailed list of activities.

He has his sights set on foreign organizations, such as the Nou Barris Cuba Solidarity Brigade, to whom he has just given a prize: a ceramic sculpture by Lázaro Valdés, known as Matacochino. “For three decades, in good times, bad times and regular times, this Barcelona brigade has been with us, with our colleague Maruja Ruiz at the helm,” he says. The 38 prizes he has awarded so far are 38 potential foreign allies who will help, he says, the “cleaning and beautification program” of the neighborhoods.

The former spy says he has the answer: “The CDR, which makes it easier for information to flow and be updated more quickly.”

For the moment, the program faces numerous obstacles – the lack of fuel and the excessive accumulation of garbage – which Hernández washes his hands of, although he does not specifically point the finger at either the Municipal Services or the Ministry of Transport: “It is not our responsibility and we are not responsible for collecting the garbage.” In Cuba, there is also a “lack of culture, of dirtiness and carelessness,” he admits

On the other hand, there is urban agriculture, which Hernández wants to implement by reinforcing the always frustrated project “Cultivate your little piece.” Faced with the failure of the initiative, he contrasts the patios and rooftops of the Saavedra family, in Santiago de Cuba. Bohemia illustrates his words with a photo: behind a few flowerbeds, barely planted, a giant face of Fidel Castro and several flags of the CDR stand out. “It is a reference patio,” he celebrates.

Hernández says that with the return of the accountability meetings, postponed since 2021, the CDRs have a new opportunity to prove their usefulness. They will be – he argues – in charge of mobilizing those who do not want to meet. “This is going to be a big challenge,” he predicts

No one should expect immediate improvements in the CDR. After all, he is only committed to implementing changes “in the long term” and stresses that the organization was not handed over to him “in an optimal state.” His problem is, above all, the lack of people who want to be leaders. He does not understand the reluctance. In the meantime, he dreams of security cameras in the blocks to replace the “CDR guards” and more sophisticated neighborhood surveillance systems

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The US Has Granted Humanitarian Parole to a Pilot Who Participated in the Downing of the Brothers to the Rescue Planes

Luis Raúl González-Pardo was in command of one of the MiG 29s but did not fire

González-Pardo, in the center, with a group of pilots from the Cuban Armed Forces / Martí Noticias

14ymedio, Havana, 17 September 2024 — “Everything, or most of what has been said, is false,” were the last – and almost only – words to a media outlet, Martí Noticias, from the former pilot of the Cuban Armed Forces Luis Raúl González-Pardo, who has been living in the United States since last April thanks to the US Humanitarian Parole program. Afterwards, he hung up the phone on journalist Mario Pentón and deleted his number from WhatsApp.

González-Pardo was involved in one of the darkest episodes of the Cuban regime: the shooting down, in 1996, of two small planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, a humanitarian organization of exiles. He also held civil positions, such as the direction of Terminal 2 of the José Martí International Airport, and his wife still lives on the Island, waiting for a visa to join him.

“Right now I have a very difficult situation,” the former pilot told Pentón on Monday. “I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do, or if I’m going to give interviews or not, mainly because of some additional situations that I have that could affect me.”

The journalist also shared on Tuesday an internal document from the US State Department, obtained by Martí Noticias and dated 2016, in which González-Pardo requested that his visa be expedited because he is a “facilitator” of high-level trips and a “key diplomatic contact” when it comes to organizing exchanges between the two countries. His visit – to continue reading

“observe American culture firsthand” – was considered of interest by Washington, which is why his consular interview was brought forward twice.

González-Pardo’s case is one of the most recent in a wave of high-ranking officials and members of the regime’s security forces who have ended up in Miami to live out their “retirement.” Photos of him wearing the uniform of the Armed Forces alongside several fighter pilots have circulated alongside the complaint in independent media.

According to several sources, González-Pardo was the man who was at the controls of the Mig 29 that pursued José Basulto – the leader of Brothers to the Rescue – to the north of the 24th parallel, in the Straits of Florida. Basulto himself confirmed this information to the military pilot Orestes Lorenzo, who escaped to the US in 1991 and returned to Cuba, despite the risks, to collect his family.

“I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do, or if I’m going to give interviews or not, mainly because of some additional situations that I have that could affect me.”

Lorenzo, a friend of González-Pardo, was not aware of his involvement in the events of 1996. In 2017, he asked the US authorities to extend the validity of his visa to attend a meeting of former Cuban military personnel and a trip to the Disney parks, Universal Studios and Kennedy Space Center Museum, in Florida.

Aboard two Cessna planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, exiles Carlos Costa, Mario Manuel de la Peña, Armando Alejandre and Pablo Morales died on February 24, 1996, the day González-Pardo and the rest of the squadron hunted them down.

After it became known that Washington had approved the visit of the former pilot, a barrage of criticism and questioning from Cuban exiles has fallen on the US authorities. The emigrants have pointed out that, although he did not shoot at the planes, he pursued them while armed, knowing that those he harassed could not defend themselves.

One of the key factors in the success of that persecution was the information passed to Havana by Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, one of a group of five other spies, who are now considered “heroes” of the regime and hold several important positions.

In the case of Hernández – current coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution – he was one of the leaders of the so-called Wasp Network of Cuban counterintelligence in Florida. The members of this group were arrested in 1998 and only five returned to the Island, thanks to a prisoner exchange during the Barack Obama Administration.

The Brothers to the Rescue tragedy became a topic of interest again at the end of last year, after Netflix produced, in 2019, a film about the Wasp Network and offered a manipulated version of the events. Basulto then sued Netflix for defamation and reached an agreement whose terms were not revealed. According to the exile, the film made concessions to the regime – which allowed scenes to be filmed in Cuba – and romanticized Fidel Castro’s crimes.

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Lunch or Dinner, the Daily Dilemma for Cubans in the Face of High Prices and Shortages

“Our diet is terrible, we eat whatever we can get hold of and not what our bodies need”

People searching the streets of Cienfuegos for some affordable food / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 15 September 2024 – When the midday sun heats up the streets of the city, dozens of Cienfuegueros go in search of something light to eat, for the lowest possible cost, to help them “endure” the rest of the day until their evening meal. Others don’t even have this possibility, because of the restrictions of their meagre income. And some even have to resort to begging in order to feed themselves. Still others hardly even manage to get a soft drink or a little water at lunchtime in order to hydrate themselves in the intense heat.

“Until last year, you could get a pizza in that place for 60 pesos. But a private owner took over and now the cheapest one costs 150 pesos”, says Arelis, 54, who has just walked past the pizzeria on Calle 37 in the city centre Prado district. “How many of them can I eat in a month if I earn 2,800 pesos? And in the bar next door a croquette roll costs 80 pesos and no one is buying”, she says.

The woman says she’s tired of having to eat pizza all her life. “The average Cuban’s diet is terrible. We eat whatever we can get hold of and not what our bodies need. At home we spend the whole month stretching out a bit of rice, or beans, or chickpeas, or whatever turns up”, she says. Like her, the majority of Cienfuegueros who spoke to us told us that they always have to make a choice between lunch or dinner, whether it’s because they can’t afford both or because the food isn’t available.

Some people are even seen to have to resort to begging in order to feed themselves

Until recently, Arelis’s mother sorted out her lunch in a social security canteen but the establishment shut some months ago for repairs and there’s no date given for its reopening. “I live very near to the ring road and work in the centre near Martí Park, which means that although I would like to, I can’t go home for lunch”, Arelis explains. “So I have to eat whatever I can find, as long as it’s not beyond what I can afford”.

Several people pass down Calle 54, hoping to find something affordable to eat. “The only thing I had this morning, before I left the house, was a sip of coffee. I have two children and what little there is has to go to them, including their snacks now that school has started”, says Nora, a well known university professor who, nonetheless, confesses to 14ymedio that she has to go hungry and forego all kinds of necessities. Her salary isn’t enough, but she’s not allowed to teach private lessons.

At lunchtime some people only have a soft drink or some water, to at least hydrate themselves in the intense heat / 14ymedio

“I come every day from Lajas to work. I leave at five in the morning, most of the time without breakfast. Throughout the day all I’ll have is some bread with some kind of filling, or an ice cream cone. By seven in the evening I’m exhausted”, says Jorge, who’s about to retire. “I never thought that after sacrificing so much I’d be seeing myself in this situation. And what’s worse is that they keep on asking me for more sacrifice. How long can this go on?”

Many Cienfuegueros go to work in the mornings most of the time without breakfast

“Until a few years ago I could go out to eat with my family. Sometimes we used to go to La Covadonga, over there in La Punta, and we had a lovely time. All that’s gone now”, says the man. And he adds that on an average salary he can only afford to buy the basics for a week or two at most. “And what then? Where will the meat and veg come from, as well as the other basic things? No one can survive like this”.

In any given cafeteria, whether it be on Calle San Carlos, Calle Santa Clara or on Calle Industria, a sandwich can cost at least 150 pesos and it doesn’t matter the type of place that sells it, or the quality of the product. “I feel sorry for my kids because they arrive home from school desperate to eat something and I have to throw something together from the manky bread that we get with the rations and add some filling to last them until dinner time with at least something in their stomachs”, Nora explains.

She and her family have been forced to stop using dairy milk because they can’t pay the price charged at the independent shops. “It’s criminal what we’re going through. I feel like we’re slowly dying”, says the professor as she watches a group of foreign tourists having lunch in Hotel La Unión, part of the Spanish Meliá chain. “At this time my kids have to have just a small yogurt and some yellow rice left over from last night. I think there are no words that can express this”, she says.

The food crisis in Cienfuegos doesn’t discriminate among people, says Arelis: “Hunger doesn’t care about the colour of your skin here, nor about the level of your intellect. You’ll see well dressed people that haven’t had a bite to eat all day”. In Cienfuegos it’s common to see independent restaurants open at all hours with doormen who wait in vain for consumers to walk in. Whilst the menus display attractive dishes with eye-watering prices, people pass by at a distance wondering what they might be able to concoct for their dinner.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Despite the Capped Prices, Year-on-Year Inflation in Cuba Exceeds 30 Percent

The Hanke index, which measures prices based on the dollar, places the increase at 42%

Price caps have also influenced the influx of customers / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 16 September 2024 — Price controls on private sales in Cuba, in force since mid-July, may be behind the containment of the consumer price index this August. Official data show that last month, general inflation barely rose by 0.42%, particularly for the sectors of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, which increased by only 0.02%. With these figures, the annual variation remains at 19.3%, while the year-on-year is 30.12%, still very high for the punished pockets of the citizens, but moderate compared to previous months.

In addition, the informal market’s inflation, which is measured by the American economist Steve Hanke and includes the effect of the exchange rate with the dollar, reaches 42% year-on-year, despite the stabilization of the greenback at 320 pesos after having grazed the 400 bar.

The coincidence in a moderation of the increase in the CPI in both the official and informal market data points to a possible reaction to the price cap in private stores of six products considered of basic necessity by the Government. It is also consistent with the paralysis of the exchange rate in the informal foreign exchange market, but it is not a guarantee of good news. As the Observatory of Currencies and Finance of Cuba (OMFI) pointed out in its report last week, the cost of this measure is “increasing shortages and strangling consumption.” continue reading

By sector, the prices of Alcohol and Tobacco fell (-0.3%), although the increases at the beginning of the year weigh down this sector. Cubans have paid 38% more so far this year and 50% more if compared to August 2023.

Food is another sector that rose the most year-on-year, almost 34.9%, despite its record decline this month

Food is another sector that rose the most year-on-year, almost 34.9%, despite its record decline this month. Onions (4.4%) and eggs (4.16%) are the only products highlighted for their rise, while avocado (-8.6%), rice (-5.7%), processed cheese (-4.7%) and white cheese (-4.4%) fell, in addition to cooking oil (-3.6%), one of the products capped by the Government.

It is followed by the year-on-year increase in the Restaurant and Hotel sectors, which essentially also include food. Although in August they rose by just 0.34%, so far this year they have increased by 19.2%, and in relation to the same month of 2023, 30.1%. In this sector, the party or birthday buffet (3.25%) leads the increases, followed by breakfast (1.4%) and soda (1.2%).

Transport rose in August by only 0.58% and puts its annual growth at 22.8% and year-on-year growth at 31.6%. Although it is almost an achievement after having quadrupled the official prices at the beginning of the year, these increases represent a great impact for the mobility of Cubans every day. In this section, the strong rise of urban motorcycles (4.12%) and urban taxis (3.4%) stands out, followed by other interurban (2.8%) and urban (1.26%) transport, while the intercity taxi increased its price by only 0.6%.

This August, the sector of various Goods and Services (1.35%) stood out for its increase, dragged down by shampoo (2.8%), conditioner (3.1%), deodorant (1.4%), hair dye (1.9%) and manicure (1.8%). In addition, toothpaste increased by 7.9%, the highest of any product last month. OMFI also highlighted the “beach excursions” for this holiday month, which increased by 4.8%.

There was much less increase in the sectors of Education (1.17%), Housing services (1.11%), Clothing and Footwear (0.98%), Recreation and Culture (0.75%), and Communications (0.04%). The Health sector did not change (0%), while Furniture and Household items fell by 0.2%.

In the midst of this scenario, where the first signs point to a worsening for September, we must take into account the depreciation of the currency, which has seriously added to the increase in prices. According to Hanke, the Cuban peso has devalued against the dollar by 22% so far this year.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Of the 1,105 Political Prisoners in Cuba, 62 Suffer From Mental Disorders

The most recent Prisoners Defenders report adds two new prisoners of conscience and subtracts 16, for suicide, expatriation or completing their sentences

Political prisoner Lizandra Góngora Espinosa, who suffers from uterine fibroids, is incommunicado / Facebook/Archive

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, September 16, 2024 — The number of political prisoners in Cuba barely decreases, according to the latest monthly report of Prisoners Defenders (PD), published on Monday. At the end of August, the NGO, based in Madrid, recorded a total of 1,105 prisoners, 14 fewer than those listed in July. Two were added to the list, while 16 were subtracted. One of them, Yosandri Mulet Almarales, had committed suicide, and the rest had either been forcefully expatriated or completed of their sentences.

In the statement, the organization emphasizes “the horrible situation experienced by prisoners, who are hungry, sick, without medical attention and being tortured.” At least 62 of the politically motivated prisoners suffer from mental health disorders and don’t receive psychiatric care or medications, in addition to being victims of abuse.

The report also points out that the “lack of food, zero medical care and the denial of medications are three common forms of torture for Cuban political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Cuba.”

According to its records, 329 of the 1,105 political prisoners suffer from “serious pathologies that put their lives at risk,” including cases of diabetes, hypertension, cerebral ischemia, hepatitis B, malnutrition, anemia and cancer.

One example is Lizandra Góngora Espinosa, who suffers from uterine fibroids. “She does not receive medical care nor does the State provide her with her medications in prison,” says PD. Góngora Espinosa was arrested continue reading

for demonstrating on 11 July 2021 – ’11J’ – and sentenced to 14 years for the “fabricated crimes” of attack, public disorder and sabotage. The activist is serving her sentence in the Los Colonos forced labor prison, on the Isle of Youth, where she was transferred in March 2023 from Havana, where she resided with her five children, four of them still minors.

PD says the doctor told her that “there is a line of 1,300 people waiting to have surgery,” and that “most Cuban women live with fibroids, so nothing will happen to you.”

This is another of the tortures pointed out by the NGO: keeping her away from her family, who were able to visit her for the first time in five months in August 2023, thanks to a trip that lasted several days. While waiting for surgery for her fibroids, Góngora Espinosa is incommunicado. PD says the doctor told her that “there is a line of 1,300 people waiting to have surgery” and that “most Cuban women live with fibroids, so nothing will happen to you.”

Also, Prisoners Defenders says that 30 minors are still on the list of prisoners, of which 28 are serving their sentences and two are being criminally prosecuted “with precautionary measures without any judicial protection.” The minimum criminal age in Cuba is 16 years.

Prisoners Defenders reported that 15 of the minors have been convicted of sedition, with an average sentence of five years of deprivation of liberty.

It also highlighted the “discriminatory and abusive” treatment suffered by the 117 women included in its list of political prisoners.

The statement added that since July 2021 – when the largest anti-government protests in almost six decades took place on the Island – “Cuba has had a total of 1,583 political prisoners in its jails.”

The PD report coincides with those of other organizations, such as Justicia 11J and the Cuban Prison Documentation Center, which, after the death of Mulet Almarales, warned that there are a dozen political prisoners at risk of suicide. Abuse and torture are widespread in all these cases.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Leonardo Hierrezuelo Left the Cuban Futsal Team Because They Didn’t Pay Him Even One Peso

The athlete took advantage of international tours to buy things that he could sell on the Island.

Cuban goalkeeper Leonardo Hierrezuelo worked in a bicycle repair shop in Havana to support himself /Leonardo Hierrezuelo

14ymedio, Havana, 15 September 2024 — Leonardo Hierrezuelo didn’t even earn one peso as the goalkeeper of the futsal* team in Havana. This was the main reason that led him to flee hours after the national team arrived in Spain at the end of August to face preparation matches. The decision, he tells the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, was made “a week before, when the tour in Portugal began.”

Hierrezuelo had been double provincial champion with Old Havana, national champion with Havana and Under-23 champion in the I Caribbean Games of Guadalupe 2022. Despite that record, he only received 350 pesos per month for the medal he won two years ago. He had to work all week in a bicycle repair shop to support himself. Like all athletes, he took advantage of international trips to “buy things that could sell well in Cuba such as sports shoes and clothing,” he says.

“Living in Cuba is very difficult; it has always been bad, but after coronavirus everything has gotten worse,” he emphasizes to the Spanish newspaper.

In Hierrezuelo’s home, that situation is palpable. “It is very difficult to find food in supermarkets, and when there is any, it’s at very high prices,” says the 23-year-old athlete. In addition, his mother “only earns about 3,000 or 4,000 Cuban pesos [monthly], which is equivalent to 10 euros.” continue reading

Leonardo Hierrezuelo received 350 pesos as support for the gold medal won at the I Caribbean Games in Guadalupe 2022 / Instagram/Leonardo Hierrezuelo

Being in Huelva, Hierrezuelo decided to leave the hotel where his team, Los Leones del Caribe, was concentrated, in the early hours of dawn on August 27. Everything was well planned; after the escape, he contacted a friend who paid for his train ticket and who is now hosting him.

The Cuban athlete has taken a step towards freedom, but his immediate urgency is to get a job and be able to stay in Spain to help his family on the Island. He does not rule out continuing his professional career in some Spanish futsal club.

Before Hierrezuelo’s escape on August 24, the Camagüeyan Harold Aguilera, 22 years old, abandoned the Cuban team in Portugal. He is considered one of the “leaders of the locker room and a regular closer.” He was also part of the Phygital futsal team (digital futsal) that recently competed in the Brics 2024 Sports Games in Kazan, Russia.

The escapes of Harold Aguilera and Leonardo Hierrezuelo have been a hard blow to the team led by Osmel Valdivia, who was looking for a competitive team to face the Futsal World Cup in Uzbekistan.

Cuba had a shameful debut against Brazil’s Verdeamarelha by losing 10-zero, an encounter that the official newspaper Jit considered a battle between “David of Judah against the giant Goliath of the Philistines.”

* Futsal is related to soccer but played on a smaller, harder, indoor court with only five players, one of whom is a goalkeeper.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Faced With the Lack of Water, Cubans Risk Their Health by Buying Used Tanks

Desperation led Dayron to acquire a tank that had been used to store ink

A water tank is badly placed on a balcony in Havana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 16 September 2024 — He vigorously scrubs the inside of the tank and an orange liquid with a strong chemical smell comes out. “It was cheaper because it’s recycled,” Dayron boasts as he shows off a blue plastic tank that he is reconditioning to increase the water reserves in his home, which has been hit by the instability in the water supply now affecting Havana. “Before, it was used to store ink, I think it was the kind used to print newspapers,” he tells 14ymedio.

The rooftops, balconies, terraces and walkways of the city have been filling up with these tanks that have always been part of the urban landscape on the Island but which, in recent years, have multiplied due to the constant breakages of the pipes and pumping equipment. “I look out the window and see tanks everywhere, people are putting them even on the narrowest balconies because they know that this problem will last a while, there is no short or medium term solution,” explains Dayron, a resident of J Street between 19 and 21 in El Vedado.

“My neighbor used to have a terrace full of ferns, which were really pretty. Now he got rid of the plants and installed two 750-liter tanks,” explains the man who joined a Facebook page called “Victims of Havana’s water.” On this virtual community, dozens of messages are posted every day, most of them desperate cries in the face of dry pipes and the lack of response from the state company. “We are in the desert,” says one Internet user, and another responds that the official monopoly is “a terrorist group” that is playing with the patience of the Cuban people. continue reading

The cheapest tanks pose health risks because removing all their waste is almost impossible

Between one message and another, advertisements for the sale of tanks are slipped in. There are tanks with a capacity of more than 1,500 litres, reinforced by a metal frame, black, blue, white, with wide lids and all their fittings, or, available more economically, are those that are recycled and that previously contained vegetable oil, fuel or printing ink. The latter are cheaper but also entail health risks because removing all their waste is a complex and sometimes impossible task.

“What am I going to do?” Dayron asks. “The ones that are originally for water cost me between 30,000 and 35,000 pesos, the ones that hold 750 liters. If it’s one that holds 1,000 liters, that’s almost 50,000 pesos,” laments the Havana native. For exactly half that price, he got a tank previously used in the printing industry, but now he has the hard task of cleaning its interior and getting it “ready as quickly as possible.”

The urgency could speed up the cleaning process and turn the tank into the new reservoir for the water that Dayron’s family will use to bathe, clean the house, cook and even drink. “Either we die from this or from thirst,” the man says with resignation.

In the Facebook group, which already has more than 2,500 members, someone has posted a couple of ads with “good tanks, those for industrial use, but clean. Guaranteed safety,” it stresses. No one knows what they contained, but everyone is sure what they will be used for: to contain that resource that is so scarce in pipes and faucets.

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