Translating Cuba

“They use the institutions that are supposed to be serious to carry out something illicit, such as the transport of migrants who arrive in an irregular way”

According to his testimony, it all began in 2021, “with a Havana-Managua airlift to transport thousands of Cuban migrants to the United States, and has continued uninterruptedly for four years, diversifying with intercontinental flights.”

The date provided by Orlando coincides with the agreement between Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel and his Nicaraguan counterpart to allow the entry of Cuban nationals into the Central American country without a visa. The announcement came at the end of November of that year, after the frustrated Civic March for Change and four months after the historic demonstrations of 11J [11 July 2021], and was the starting signal of the greatest exodus in the history of Cuba.

At first, Orlando explains, charter flights in Nicaragua took place “in the context of the pandemic,” to repatriate American and European citizens to their countries or Nicaraguans who were abroad and had been stranded when commercial flights were closed due to COVID-19. Afterwards, there began to be “flights from the Caribbean, with mainly Cuban citizens, who came to Nicaragua to do shopping tourism, according to what was proposed to us in the meetings before handling these flights.”

It soon became clear to them that Cubans were not going to Managua for that purpose: “Several months later, all the workers already knew that the main reason for the entry was the trampoline to the United States.” As an example, he says that the planes arrived completely full, “with 150 Cuban passengers and only five returned, maximum ten.” The nationals of the Island, his story continues, “were amazed to see the refrigerators full of food. So we now knew that they didn’t come to do shopping tourism, because of the way they behaved.”

“They were amazed to see the refrigerators full of food. So we now knew that they didn’t come to do shopping tourism, because of the way they behaved”

Every day there were “at least” five flights between 50 and 150 passengers, the media indicate, which remained constant until the Biden Administration established the humanitarian parole program, in early 2023. Then they decreased.

Confidential estimates, in any case, suggest that between May 2023 and May 2024 1,475 charter flights with more than 191,000 passengers landed in Managua, “most of them coming from Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean countries.” Between 30 and 40 intercontinental charter flights “also came from Libya, Senegal, India, several Asian countries and from European airports in Germany and France.”

Some of the latter are precisely in Washington’s crosshairs for considering them accomplices of illegal immigration in its territory. Some evidence also points to the fact that part of the irregular migratory swell may be related to Vladimir Putin’s interest in destabilizing the United States. On June 13, the State Department announced visa restrictions for the executive of an unnamed airline that the independent Nicaraguan press identified as Mohamed Ben Ayad and Ghadames Airlines, from Libya. Sources of 14ymedio in Tripoli, however, revealed that the airline had just been sold and that it is in the name of one of the sons of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, an ally of the Russian president.

Some evidence also points to the fact that part of the irregular migratory swell may be related to Vladimir Putin’s interest in destabilizing the United States

Orlando, the source of Confidencial, explains that for the entire operation, Easy Aviation’s role of intermediary was fundamental, whose website, checks 14ymedio, is out of service. The company is registered in Miami, notes Carlos F. Chamorro, at least since 2018, but has its offices in the Managua Airport. At its head, explains the journalist, are three Nicaraguan citizens – Silvio Otero Quiroz, Geovanny Jaén Arróliga and Iván Abdul Olivares Lacayo -, one of them also with American nationality.

As Orlando explains, “Easy Aviation hired the charter airline to make a certain route. Subsequently, it managed and paid for Civil Aeronautics permits. And when the plane was in the country or landed at the airport, it paid the Airport Company for the services performed, that is, the landing and takeoff rights, operations and ramp personnel, among other services, and was responsible for charging the end customer, that is, the travel agency or the migrants directly.”

The former official points to Geovanny Jaén, manager and partner of Easy Aviation, as the key person throughout the process: “He gets the Civil Aeronautics permits approved expeditiously. Precisely because of this, the Civil Aeronautics authorities do not object, and once he has the permits, he sends the schedule and flight plans to us at the airport. Likewise, once the flight has arrived and the operation has ended, he is immediately paid in cash for the private flights [in] the offices of the Airport Management Company, once the plane takes off. Geovanny Jaén, through Easy Aviation, is the only one who exercises the control and coordinates the operation of these charter flights of migrants at the Managua Airport . There is no other company that is responsible for handling or carrying out this operation.”

“They pay 150 dollars for a safe-conduct pass, and they don’t stamp the passports of migrants”

Being registered in the United States, Orlando argues, the firm has access to a network of charter airline companies. The main ones are Sky High and Air Century, registered in the Dominican Republic, and Viva Aerobus, from Mexico. That the Mexican commercial airline was involved in these flights surprised the former EAAI employee: “They do not regularly make charter flights; however, they operated routes via Havana-Cancún, Cancun-Managua, and they only operate with the Airbus 320 aircraft with a capacity of up to 186 passengers. I am surprised because they regularly only operate commercial flights from Mexico to the United States and Central America, and I was surprised to see that they were mainly transporting Cuban migrants.”

As for the Venezuelan Conviasa, which is not a charter but a commercial airline, it is also used to transport migrants, said Orlando: “Before the pandemic, Conviasa carried out flights from Havana to Managua in the context of shopping tourism for Cuban citizens, who were going to buy at the Eastern Market and return to Cuba. But later, at the time of the migrant boom towards the southern border of the United States, Conviasa was only transporting migrants. There was no shopping tourism, and it was operated that way with a direct flight from Havana to Managua, with two different types of aircraft. They had an Embraer 190, with a capacity of approximately 100 passengers, and an Airbus 340, with a capacity of up to 320, 350 passengers.”

The complicity of the Nicaraguan authorities is flagrant, according to what Orlando explains to Chamorro. The EAAI organizes and supervises all the flights at Managua Airport and “subordinates itself to Guerrero Castillo, the commissioner of the National Police.” It also has responsibility for Civil Aeronautics, as a regulatory body, by “giving permission and certifying that flights are operated in a safe way.”

The last link in the chain is Migration, which is responsible for determining whether to admit migrants. “If they are supposed to be tourists who arrive, there has to be a guideline, a hotel reservation, as is done in Panama, and you have to bring 500 dollars in cash or 1,000 dollars, depending, and they don’t,” explains Orlando, who says that Cubans are not monitored for this. What’s more, “they are charged a fee, a kind of extortion”: “They pay 150 dollars for a safe-conduct pass, and they don’t even stamp the passports of Cuban migrants.”

According to this former official, “the Migration agents already know. They already have the order. They send the migrants to a special line.” When they leave the airport, Orlando recalls, “they are already beginning their journey on foot to the United States.”

Orlando suggests that international authorities, including the UN and the United States, should be invited to investigate the financial plot in order to end this “mafia”: “The financial origin of the operation is Easy Aviation, the company that is responsible for the handling of charter flights, and it is based in Miami, Florida. From there you could easily check the financial statements, the movements of money, the movements of the deposits that are made to the different airlines and the origin of that money as well.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The investigations against the Cuban for human trafficking began in 2022. The Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in Crimes of Violence against Women, Vulnerable Groups and Human Trafficking (Fevimtra) opened the investigation folder YUC/0000779 for an anonymous complaint. The “dark business” linked to Fernández Viamonte was mentioned, who also promoted artists’ concerts through the PF Group.

One of the lines of investigation of the case points to the alleged complicity of senior security commanders, who were paid $10,000 for the transfer of victims to different houses located in Mérida and for alerting operatives in the bars.

“The victims were hooked with the promise that they would be working as models and assistants, with daily salaries of $2,000. However, already in Mérida, the traffickers took their papers, asked them for data about their relatives and confiscated their cell phones. Then they offered them as escorts to their customers, who were charged between 20,000 and 25,000 pesos per hour,” Sol Yucatán published.

Reports have reached 14ymedio about the trafficking networks that trap Cubans, Colombians and Venezuelans through emotional attachments. Activist María Ángel Vielma said that many women also come to this country with the promise of a job and other false commitments. “The rapist looks for what the woman needs to manipulate her; the hook is disguised as love,” she said.

Vielma explained that these cases are common among women who come from countries with economic crises or with nationalities which have stereotypes of female beauty. “There is a selective xenophobia, we say, because if you are Central American, the treatment and pejorative comments are very ugly. In contrast, if you are Colombian, Cuban or Venezuelan, you are the sexy girl, the bomb, what they see on television that they believe is a woman from these countries,” she stressed.

This could explain why of the 227 foreigners killed in Mexico from 2015 to 2023, 32 were Colombians and 29 Venezuelans, according to the National Public Security System (SNSP).

Fernández Viamonte, in addition, has been accused, along with his partner Gabriel Guzmán Millet, of fraud. The complaint was filed by Inver Altabrisa, in accordance with file number 00135/2017.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The number has risen by more than two percentage points since 2019, when 16.7% of deliveries were to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19

Other alarming numbers are those of very early pregnancies, between 12 and 14 years of age. In the first half of 2023, 5.4% of adolescent pregnancies correspond to girls of those ages, a high number compared to the figure of 2018, when it was 3.8%.

These are just the global figures, exceeded in many cases, the authorities warn, by the number of pregnancies in certain territories, starting with the eastern provinces. Provinces such as Las Tunas (22.7%), Holguín (21.3%), Camagüey (20.5%) and Granma (20.3%) have the highest percentages of teenage pregnancies in the country.

Molina relates cases of early pregnancies to various aspects of the social and family context of adolescents. According to the authorities, who defend a position that mainly blames families, it is the parents themselves who often “incite” adolescent girls to maintain relationships with adult men or to have children, and the family experience influences their decisions. “The daughter of a teenage mother often ends up also being a mother at an early age of life,” Doctor of Sciences Antonio Aja said in July 2023 in front of Parliament.

“Young women tend to repeat the learned patterns of early family formation, either through formal or informal unions, which often involve early pregnancies,” Molina clarifies. Being black or mestizo, unemployed and living in conditions of “vulnerability” are other characteristics that, as defined on other occasions by the authorities, make up the profile of Cuban teenage mothers.

There are cases of adults up to 50 years old who have relationships with girls under 19 years old

Another situation, which enhances the inequality between adolescents and their partners, is the age difference. For girls who are between 10 and 14 years old, their partners are on average 8.9 years older. However, the newspaper recognizes that there are cases of adults up to 50 years old who have relationships with girls under the age of 19. “As the age of the teenager is younger, that distance becomes greater and greater,” says the media.

Molina points out that, in addition to the fact that they are “girls” and not adult women, teenage pregnancies often bring situations of disadvantage, gender violence, power and freedom imbalances, and child marriages.

“Teenage pregnancy limits inclusive development, increases inequalities and social disadvantages, and aggravates gender gaps and heterogeneities between territories,” says the specialist, who sees with concern that in 2014 the median age for the first marriage was 15.4 years old. The recent Code of Families placed the minimum age for marriage at 18 years – before it was 14 years for girls and 16 for boys with parental consent – but many informal unions continue to happen “outside the law,” Cubadebate admits.

In 2022, 15 adolescents age 14 or younger were married, while in the group of 15 to 19 years old, the figure rises to 3,987, according to the Demographic Year of Cuba of 2022. For its part, the latest Survey of Multiple Indicators by Conglomerates, published in 2019 by the Ministry of Public Health, estimated that 6.2% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 had married or lived with men before the age of 15.

In 2022, 15 adolescents under the age of 15 married, while in the group of 15 to 19 years old, the figure rises to 3,987

“When girls become mothers, they are much more likely to have more children in adolescence, which increases the risks for their personal development, but also for their offspring, the family and the community,” adds Molina, who explains that 75% of girls who have a child before the age of 15 are pregnant again before they are 20.

Molina adds, finally, other variables, such as the early onset of sexual relations, before the age of 15, the lack of education along with the low perception of risk and, ultimately, the “marked deficit of contraceptive methods, which increases the unsatisfied demand of this population.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Meanwhile, in the United States there is fear among Cubans with the probation form I-220B (people with this document can be deported at any time) in the face of a pattern of detentions and possible deportations to the Island.

Yoselianys Rodríguez was arrested after attending her appointment with the Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) in Miramar (Florida), reported her husband Ashley Cepero, a doctor who left a mission in Venezuela and now has U.S. nationality. Cepero told Telemundo 51 this Saturday that when Rodríguez entered the United States, she was arrested at the Broward Transitional Center (BTC). “She went to court, but unfortunately they didn’t defend her and didn’t prepare her properly,” he said.

Immigration lawyer Antonio Ramos said that the arrest of Cubans with I-220B and without a criminal record is strange. “There are people with crimes who are not deported to Cuba. And people who are honest and who have not committed any crime are deported just because Cuba is accepting them,” he said.

Llamiris Gámez was arrested by ICE agents on June 17 while on her way to work.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

In general, the fall is attributed to a lower fertility rate in the large world economies

Spain is in that segment, with a fertility rate of 1.2 children per woman. Although the UN estimates that it will rise slightly to 1.38, its population, which is currently 47.9 million, will fall to 32.1 million people in 2100, a sharp decrease of 33%, much lower than that of the Island, so the causes point more to migration.

According to UN forecasts, of the 5.5 million Cubans that there will be in 2100, 2.8 will be men and 2.7 women, with an average age of 54.9 years, which indicates a notable aging of the population. There would be 410 Cubans over 60 years old for every 100 Cubans over 14 years, compared to the current 157. Meanwhile, the population growth rate, which today is -3.5, in 2100 will be -10.8.

In addition, the mortality rate will be 17 per 1,000 inhabitants, with 95,000 annual deaths, compared to 38,000 births. The age of life expectancy increases significantly, up to 88 years compared to the current 78, but at the same time it reflects a decrease in the percentage of women of childbearing age, which falls another 10 points from the current 41% to 31%.

Li Junhua, Undersecretary General of Economic and Social Affairs, believes that the population data provided by the report are positive in general and that a decrease in the population not only reflects a higher level of development, but will have an impact on “a lower ecological pressure of human impact due to a lower aggregate consumption.”

A decrease in the population not only reflects a higher level of development, but will have an impact on “a lower ecological pressure of human impact due to a lower aggregate consumption”

The report indicates that the population “peak” has been reached in 63 countries – Cuba among them, although most are from the so-called ’”developed world.” China, Germany, Russia and Japan stand out; in that group, a net population reduction of 14% is expected.

There is another segment of countries, with Brazil and Iran in the lead, where the peak will occur between now and 2054; finally, in the remaining 126 countries, that peak will not arrive until the second half of the century.

In this last group of countries, which will continue to grow in population for decades, are India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria and the United States, predictably due to immigration in the latter case.

In 50 countries of the world, it will be emigration that will attenuate the effects of a declining and increasingly older population. The arrival of emigrants will increase the birth rate and slightly rejuvenate the average age of the population

At the end of the 2070s, there will be more people in the world over 65 years of age than under 18, and a greater number of elderly people (over 80) than infants under one year of age.

In 50 countries of the world, emigration will mitigate the effects of a declining and increasingly older population

All these forecasts can, however, change significantly. The COVID-19 pandemic was a factor that significantly modified the demographic data, for example, with an increase in the mortality rate.

In addition, in Cuba, mass migration may, in fact, have already changed the figures. The UN puts the Island’s population at 11 million at the moment, although it is almost certain that the number of residents has decreased. The data is kept hidden by the delay of the census that the Government should have prepared in 2022 and postponed due to the economic crisis.

The new tentative date for its realization is in 2025. However, an independent study by Cuban economist and demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos that came to light a few weeks ago affirms that the population of Cuba fell by 18% between 2022 and 2023 and is currently 8.62 million.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Enmanuel Reyes (“The Prophet”) traveled to Spain in 2016 and plays for that country for the second time in the Olympics. After a defeat against his compatriot Julio César La Cruz in Tokyo, he told the Olympics portal that “my goal is to win the gold medal in Paris 2024.” Loren Berto Alfonso, who has won medals for Azerbaijan since 2019, won the bronze medal in Tokyo 2020. The boxer arrives at the Parisian event with bronze in the European Championship in Belgrade (2024) and silver in the World Championship in Uzbekistan (2023).

Yulenmis Aguilar will compete in javelin throwing. She won a gold medal at the beginning of July in Spain and was champion in 2015 and 2017. She received her Spanish naturalization papers in 2020.

Volleyball player Wilfredo León will defend Poland

Volleyball player Wilfredo León will defend Poland. The athlete from Santiago, who escaped in 2013, plays offense on that country’s team. For his part, the outside hitter Yoandy Leal, who became a naturalized Brazilian, between 2010 – the last year he defended Cuba – and 2020, won 25 titles with the volleyball club Sada Cruzeiro. In addition, he won three club world championships (2013, 2015 and 2016), three South American championships and five editions of the Super League.

Melissa Vargas leads Turkey’s women’s volleyball team, considered by the Olympics portal as the best in the world. Vargas was chosen in 2023 as the most valuable player on her team, Fenerbahçe Opet, and in 2024 she dominated the women’s ranking worldwide.

Ismael Romero won his ticket to the Olympics with the Puerto Rico basketball team. The Cuban was key for that team to return to the event after 20 years of absence.

In freestyle wrestling, Frank Chamizo will defend Italy. The athlete left the Island in 2011 and won bronze in Rio de Janeiro 2016. In the European Championship he won bronze in Bucharest (2024) and silver in Zagreb (2023). For his part, the Greco-Roman fighter Yasmani Acosta arrived in Santiago de Chile in 2015 and participated in Tokyo 2020. He won bronze in the Pan American Championship (2022) and the Pan American Games (2023).

Wrestler Néstor Almanza Jr. left the Island to settle in Chile in 2020 and that same year won the national championship. The athlete became a Chilean citizen in December 2022. Two years later he won a place in the Olympic Games and became the youngest athlete from Chile to achieve it.

Judoka María Celia Laborde, who fled in 2014, will play for the United States in the competition

Judoka María Celia Laborde, who escaped in 2014, will defend the United States in the competition. In 2022 she won the American national title, the African Open of Tunisia and the Pan American Open of Santo Domingo. For her part, Ana Laura Portuondo-Isasi will arrive in Paris with the Canadian team. Before doing so, she took the silver in the Pan American Judo Championship (2024).

Fencer Neisser Loyola achieved his qualification in the Olympic Games, with the flag of Belgium, after winning the World Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia, last March. The athlete, who left the Island at the age of 16, also won the silver medal in the Doha Grand Prix (2023).

Sailor Pedro Luis Fernández Jr. is another of the hopes for Puerto Rico – where he arrived in 2008 – in the Parisian capital. As for the hurdler Yasmani Copello, he will compete for Turkey. In Rio 2016, he won the bronze. He has been champion and runner-up in the editions of Amsterdam 2016 and Berlin 2018.

The refugee team will be formed by the canoeist Fernando Dayán Jorge Enríquez, gold medal in canoeing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and Ramiro Mora, weightlifting champion resident in the United Kingdom, where he worked in a circus before achieving the British record in the 89 and 96 kilograms categories.

In addition, 62 Cubans who remain with Cuba will participate in the Olympics, a figure that says a lot about the state of Cuban sport, since it is the smallest delegation that the Island has sent to this event since Tokyo 1964. Still attached to the Cuban Athletics Federation – which will send 19 athletes to the games – Juan Miguel Echevarría will not go to the event because he does not meet the qualifying requirements. Nor did Shainer Rengifo, who was injured last June and fled during an event in Spain this Thursday.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

The report closes the food section with a disturbing fact: “In the sugar harvest, out of a plan of 58,811 tons, 21,760 were achieved, or 37% ; in the planting work of 5,286 hectares, only 975 have been sown,” so the next campaign is not guaranteed either.

Another key sector, water, exhibits indicators “distant from what is desired and from the real needs of our population,” the authorities explain. Even with investments at 100%, about 30% of the population does not have domestic service and 38% do not have sewers. “The situation of water supply and waste treatment is not favorable,” it adds, especially in Santa Clara – where the cycles exceed 90 days – and in the town of Mataguá, in Manicaragua, where it’s now 355 days. The worst situation, however, is that of Güinía de Miranda, where the breakage of the hydraulic pump completely stopped the service.

Another key sector, water, exhibits indicators “distant from what is desired and from the real needs of our population”

The supply of tanker trucks is not a viable alternative either, they recognize, because in some cases the frequency of supply exceeds 180 days. As for housing, in 2023, 269 “basic housing cells” of the 653 projected were built by the State. Of these, 48 are finished but are not habitable due to the lack of electrical service.

Until this April, public transport in the province decreased its number of trips by 27% and the number of passengers it moves by 34.3%. Of the 221 routes, only those between 48 and 71 continue to operate, depending on the parts and the fuel. Of the roads and railways, “only 27.8% are in good condition.”

Another critical point is crime, especially in the fields. In 2023, 50.5% of the 22,055 criminal acts recorded – an increase of 2,142 compared to 2022 – were against livestock. This was followed by “other thefts and violent robberies.” These three “modalities” account for 80.7% of the crime in the province. There were also 100 ration store robberies in 2023, a decrease from the 176 in 2022.

Unlike other sectors, whose problems were left pending solutions or with mere suggestions, the government of Villa Clara has a clear strategy to combat, not crime, but its perception by the residents of the province. “There has been a significant impact on the people of the dissemination of the results of the confrontations, with emphasis on social networks of institutional and personal profiles of cadres, of the local organs of the People’s Power and on the so-called ’People’s Force’,” the report states.

The list of management failures continues, but it is clear that the authorities know very well what prevents the territory from advancing

The list of management failures continues, but it is clear that the authorities know very well what prevents the territory from advancing. In the case of the state sector, where 17 companies closed 2023 with losses, the deficit of inputs and raw materials, the shortage of fuel, the inflated workforce and the “centralized prices” are the biggest burden for the local economy, which is a reflection of other territories and of the entire country.

Only exports, a sector that the regime prioritizes for its opportunity to raise foreign currency, remain afloat. Although the report does not break down the services and products, the 2023 plan was fulfilled by 106.7% with 1,575 million pesos raised, and by 126% in the first quarter of this year, with 487 million.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Created in October 2018, the document allowed the arrival and stay in Panama for up to 30 days of citizens, self-employed or artisans. In mid-2019, the Migration Service temporarily suspended the issuance of the visa alleging irregularities detected by the Government in the allocation and use of this procedure.

In addition to this tourism document, many Cubans, since March 2022, are obliged to apply for a transit visa in case of taking flights with a stopover at Tocumen International Airport. On that date, Panama declared that the requirement responded to the increase in national travelers from Cuba who fail to be admitted to the country of their final destination.

The transit visa authorizes Cubans to stay in the air terminal for 24 hours. The current resolution expires on July 31, and for the moment there is no information about an extension of the transit visa for Cubans .

Recently, Panama closed three unauthorized border crossings, which this year have used by more than 195,000 migrants – including 500 Cubans – to make the crossing to the United States.

With the support of 300 units of the National Border Service (Senafront), points were blocked on the coast of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. In addition, barbed wire was placed on the shortcuts that lead to the Hito de Chucurti area, bordering Colombia.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

He admitted that for a large part of the population they are still very high prices, particularly for retirees or people with low incomes

However, he said that this measure came from meetings with more than 50,000 “economic actors,” the self-employed, members of cooperatives and owners of private businesses. The State is not subject to this policy, at least for the moment, since stores in Freely Convertible Currency (MLC) sell at prices much higher, as a large part of the population denounced, which, however, admits that it matters little, since there are no products in those establishments.

“I wish we could buy in MLC [hard currency] stores,” commented a user this Wednesday in a Cubadebate forum that asked for experiences from consumers, “but there the prices are equally high and abusive, the shelves are empty and then again, what percentage of the population owns that currency?” “In the province, in MLC there is nothing or almost nothing, and even less in municipalities; most of the merchandise is in Havana, that’s why the people of the province had to end up in the MSMEs, which also annoy people a lot. Now there’s nothing on offer by the State or the MSMEs,” complained another.

Regueiro Ale added that, since local governments have the power to set other price caps, if they are lower than the State ones, they do not have to raise them.

The official also insisted on two important ideas: the first, that the State makes a “sacrifice” by renouncing the income it would obtain at Customs in order to “favor the reduction of costs”; the second, that the measure is not isolated and that there will be others “that will have an implementation soon and will allow the creation of a scenario where we have more production and provision of goods and services.”

He did not specify anything else, but the warning may be linked to the six decrees that the authorities say they have ready to approve in the coming days that “correct the distortions that are present in the action of non-state forms of management.” There is no concrete information yet, but progress has been made concerning reforms to the decrees that regulate self-employment, mipymes and non-agricultural cooperatives, as well as the Social Security rules for their workers and the tax system.

In addition, the municipalities will progressively assume the ability to authorize MSMEs, a process that has begun in Ciego de Ávila – the province with the most entrepreneurs outside of Havana – with the training of officials, who “dominate the business ecosystem and know the potential of the respective actors who are there or can be there, based on their needs and priorities.”

“It’s not about prohibiting or taking a step back; this is regular, it’s accompanying, driving, controlling”

The new rules, said Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, will try to fill legal gaps or aspects that they had not initially foreseen, in order to continue “perfecting” the system and making it clear that “the main player in the economy is the socialist state enterprise, and the different forms of non-state management are a complement to it.” “It’s not about prohibiting or taking a step back; this is regular, it’s accompanying, driving, controlling,” he added.

Uncertainty reigns, between some things and others, in the private sector, where many have chosen to “hide” the products with capped prices, as 14ymedio has been able to see in tours made in Havana, although in other provinces the absence is not so noticeable, according to the collaborators of this newspaper. The real impact cannot be evaluated until more time passes, but economist Pavel Vidal, in his report for the OMFI (Cuban Observatory of Money and Finance), fears the worst.

“The measures are concentrated almost exclusively on the containment of expenses, on the management of the crisis in the very short term and on the use of instruments of direct economic control of proven failure (such as price caps). A part of the proposals generate predictable negative effects and greater uncertainty for the private sector, especially those that sell imported products,” he says.

The expert, who reports that imports from the United States increased by 65% in the first five months of the year and by 59% in May, compared to 2023, advances that “if a contractive impact is confirmed on the dynamics of external purchases of the private sector, there would be a moderating effect on the exchange rate,” although he rules out that it is significant, due to the absence of “background” measures. This Thursday, the dollar was exchanged in the informal market for 335 pesos.

“It is a war against the State that spawned them and protects them. Control and monitoring of the application of exemplary measures is being imposed”

Consumers, meanwhile, are divided between those who experience a slight relief from the new prices and those who already feel the lack of products on the street. “Great move. We all knew what they were going to do. Several of the products disappeared in the MSMEs. Now they will sell them secretly and at higher prices. It ’s a war against the State that engendered them and protects them. Control and monitoring of the application of exemplary measures is being imposed,” says a reader of Cubadebate.

A hard hand that asks for more. “They show that the State has the legal force, and, to all those who don’t offer anything, let them boycott the measures, encircle them and that’s it. Stop passing the buck and defend the working people.”

But others differ. “Competent policies are essential to improve the functioning of the markets, which in turn benefits consumers,” considers one person. Another says, “These policies seek to increase competition in the markets so that consumers have more options and lower prices. In addition, they promote transparency and asymmetric information so that consumers can make well-informed decisions.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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