Translating Cuba – Page 183 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Cuba’s State Press Is Silent Over the Death of a Cupet Worker From Toxic Gases

García worked for the Matanzas Oil Drilling and Extraction Company / Facebook / Renier García Gómez

14ymedio, Havana, 8 June 2024 — A worker of the Cárdenas Oil Drilling and Extraction Company, in Matanzas, died this Friday after inhaling toxic gases during the repair of a leak. The news was shared on the official Facebook profiles of the company, a branch of the Cuban Petroleum Union (Cupet), which regretted the death of the worker without clarifying the circumstances of the accident. “Renier García Gómez, head of the 7 Collector Center, dies, a young man given to the oil cause,” announced one of the entity’s publications.

Faced with the silence of the official provincial press and the company itself, it has been García’s acquaintances who have offered some details. “There was a gas leak, and two men were seriously injured. Unfortunately, there was no time. One of the men died, and to my surprise, it was Renier,” one of his acquaintances wrote on social networks, adding that the victim had been his high school math teacher.

Other publications mention that the repair of the leak was carried out underground, and when accessing the area both workers inhaled the gas and were admitted on June 5 to the Faustino Pérez hospital in the provincial capital. Some users shared on Thursday several requests for vitamin C for the young father, who was in “serious” condition. continue reading

The death of another Cupet worker brings to mind the events that occurred at the Matanzas Supertanker Base in 2022

The death of another Cupet worker brings to mind the events that occurred at the Matanzas Supertanker Base in 2022, when several firefighters and state employees died trying to contain a fire in the oil deposits. Accidents like these place attention on the company and its lack of security for its employees.

Two years ago, the Saratoga Hotel located in Old Havana exploded due to a gas leak, and 47 people died. Of these, 23 worked at the hotel.

Last February, three stevedores also died in the port of Santiago de Cuba from lethal gases, after opening a container that had been fumigated.

The list goes on, but the silence of the authorities is constant and there is little transparency with the data. According to the National Bureau of Statistics and Information, in 2022, the most recent figures available, 52 people died in work accidents. That same year, the number of these incidents was 1,858, which affected 1,949 employees; 63.2% of the injured were men.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Repair of Trains in Cuba With French Help Advances at a Snail’s Pace

The situation has been “affected by breakdowns and delays at the time of operation,” the authorities admit.

The Railway Workshops of San Luis have begun the repair of 16 locomotives / ACN

14ymedio, Madrid, 8 June 2024 — The improvement of the railways repeatedly promised by the Cuban Government is slow to arrive. According to Sierra Maestra, in an article published this Thursday, the “general repair of 16 large-sized locomotives in the Railway Workshops of San Luis, with the collaboration of French personnel,” has begun. Marcia Sierra Gómez, director of that unit of the Railway Equipment Repair Company, told the official state newspaper, “it will gradually improve the situation of the transport of cargo and passengers, marked by breakdowns and delays at the time of operation of the machines.”

What Sierra Maestra does not say is that the project of these repairs, which receives the support of the French Agency for Development (AFD), began in March 2022, and so far has borne little fruit.

The organization, present in Cuba since 2016, has five projects in the country – related to the promotion of rural development, the improvement of water and sanitation services, the promotion of renewable energies, and the modernization of public health and transport infrastructures – with a total investment so far of 133 million euros. continue reading

In 2023, the Union of Railways of Cuba (UFC) recognized that it had 81 Chinese locomotives, but only 25 of them could be used.

In 2023, the Union of Railways of Cuba recognized that it had 81 Chinese locomotives, but only 25 of them could be used.

The information about the repair of the 16 locomotives appears at the end of an article that reports the East Railway Company (EFO) announcement of the restoration, again, of several routes that are suspended due to lack of fuel and trains.

Thus, as Yasnay Sánchez Robert, director of State operations, told Sierra Maestra, they foresee the commissioning of the Santiago-Manzanillo locomotive, the Bayamo-Manzanillo, and the Holguín-Antilla, “as well as an evaluation to reinstate the Guantánamo-Holguín.”

The official said that they are repairing “mainly the Santiago-Manzanillo, as well as the large and medium-sized locomotives and securing the fuel for the fulfillment of the itineraries.” Similarly, he reported that the rates will continue to be subsidized.

The current train services in that part of the Island detailed by the official press and the officials are: Guantánamo and Santiago, Monday and Friday; between Holguín and Las Tunas, Monday to Saturday; “the urban Bayamo-Mabay; the Santiago-Contramaestre; as well as the motor vehicles that cover four daily routes between the City of Guaso and several localities of the easternmost territory of the country.” These services only go to show the precariousness and crisis of the rail services that have existed for decades.

Another example, between the provincial capitals of the East – among them the second most populous city, Santiago de Cuba – and the capital, is the existence of only one train “every four days.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Everyday Question in the Pharmacies of Matanzas, Cuba: “Did the Medications Arrive?”

Knowing that the pharmacies are empty, the people in Mantanzas turn to the informal market to buy medicine / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, 8 June 2024 — At the crack of dawn, the elderly and the ‘coleros‘* begin to turn up at the pharmacies on Tirry Road, in the Iglesias neighborhood or in El Naranjal, in the city of Matanzas. It’s early, but the heat already suffocates those who wait for the pharmacies to open with a question on the tip of their tongues: “Did the medications arrive?”

Two blocks from the Versalles bridge, Elsa, a retired woman suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, is waiting. The disease and her 72 years do not prevent her from going to the pharmacy first thing in the morning to buy medication for her and her husband, but the pharmacist, who sticks her head out without fully opening the door, is blunt: “Don’t get excited. Yesterday nothing came in and neither did it today.”

“There is never anything in this pharmacy. Supposedly they must be stocked once a week, and the medications on the card, which my husband and I have for our chronic conditions, are prioritized. In total, a month’s medicine costs us 375 pesos. It’s not cheap, but the real problem is that what we need is always missing,” Elsa complains. She considers for a moment going to a pharmacy somewhat further away that usually has naproxen, the only thing that relieves her pain, but “by now, everything is gone,” she thinks.

Given the lack of anti-inflammatories, Elsa has also tried to buy remedies at the natural medicine pharmacy on Milanés Street. The experience, however, continue reading

has not been gratifying. “When I go, there’s nothing I’m looking for, and if there is, it doesn’t do anything for me,” she says.

The Matanceros complain that, even with a good diagnosis, if there are no medications everything is for nothing / 14ymedio

Elsa is accompanied by Cristina, a neighbor a few years younger, who tells this newspaper that getting medication in the city is a race of cunning and favors. “It’s not just that they resell the drugs in the pharmacies, but now you also have to pay the ‘coleros‘ to be ahead in line. By giving them 500 pesos, at least you have a better chance of reaching the medications. Otherwise, you have to try to get along with the pharmaceutical companies so that they can keep a package for you,” she says.

Cristina is skilled in the “business” and knows more than one trick to guarantee the medications she needs every month to treat her heart disease. The first “law,” she says, is to always have a prescription on hand, “because you never know when what you need will arrive. I have a niece who is a doctor, and she gives me prescriptions so that when the medicine appears, I have them ready,” she explains.

The woman has also managed, through her niece, to be treated by a doctor in a medical center for foreign patients inside the Faustino Pérez hospital. Since the center is located on the outskirts of the city, she has to pay for a shared taxi every month to get to the consultation. “The truth is that I have no complaints about the doctor, although from time to time I have to give him a little gift. The problem comes when I leave the consultation because, even with a good diagnosis, if there are no medications I haven’t achieved anything.”

She says that she has learned all those “tricks” because she has nowhere else to get the drugs, and her pension of 2,800 pesos is not enough for her to buy them in the informal market. “Elsa, for example, pays less than me, 2,200, but she has a grandson in Miami who helps her with medicine or money all the time. Everyone has to solve problems with what they have,” she reflects.

Interviewed by 14ymedio, the administrator of a pharmacy in the city center says that the huge amount of missing medications is just one more problem of those faced by State premises. The entity that administers, for example, “has no refrigeration equipment” and is in bad condition. “Every year the Government tells me that the center is part of a capital repair plan and every year the same thing happens: when the founding anniversary of the city approaches, they paint the facade and the interior continues falling down.”

Many pharmacies lack the necessary equipment to store medications / 14ymedio

That pharmacy is precisely the one that Antonio, a 61-year-old high school teacher who has diabetes, attends. “I don’t remember the last time I saw Metformin at the pharmacy in my neighborhood. Luckily my daughter, who lives abroad, every time I need it, sends me a blood glucose meter and some insulin pills, which are very good. If it weren’t for that, I would have my veins finished from the punctures,” he says.

However, Antonio issues a caveat. “Hospital pharmacies are even worse, and sometimes there is a patient in serious condition and they don’t have the medications they need.” The teacher has experienced this situation first-hand, since months ago he went with his grandson to the pediatric hospital for a bacterial infection, and they couldn’t find the antibiotic they needed throughout the province. “We had to buy it in Havana and when he was discharged and we wanted to give him some candy, the candy seller himself – among other things – had the Rocephin blister packs that we had looked for like crazy,” he says.

“They want the teachers to tell their students that Cuba is a medical powerhouse, when all those kids have seen their grandparents and siblings get sick without there being anything to cure them,” says the teacher, who adds that staying healthy on the Island costs an arm and a leg.

Translated by Regina Anavy

*Translator’s note: “Coleros” are people who are paid by others to stand in line (la cola) for them. The practice is widespread but not legal.

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A Building in the Middle of Paseo Del Prado in Havana Defies the Law of Gravity

The building, long and narrow, looks like one of the structures made with the Jenga game / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 8 June 2024 — One, two, three and four floors create a giant Jenga on Paseo del Prado, on the corner of Virtudes Street. As in the British game, time has been making pieces out of the building and now Havana is waiting for its imminent fall, in the middle of one of the busiest and most popular streets in the capital.

Next to the Andalusian Center, the house of the republican era, skeletal and with steel bars that look like bones, doesn’t cause shame to anyone, even if it is in sight of all the foreigners who walk through the city. Inside, an old man on the second floor watches the gray and rainy sky of this Saturday, so that the threadbare pieces of clothing that hang on his balcony don’t get wet.

The columns that support the building, elongated and narrow like the Island – and in the same condition of construction – seem strong, but to others, “you just have to blow on it and it will fall down,” says a passer-by sarcastically.

The republican-era house, skeletal and with steel bars that look like bones, doesn’t make anyone ashamed / 14ymedio

On the lower floors, the colors of street art have taken possession of a metal gate and moldy walls. The phrases of peace and love on the portal look like the last desperate cry of the building, which evokes Martí and some other unidentified martyr with its drawings. They ask for a ransom: “love is repaid with love.”

A star of David, the sun and the moon kissing and colorful stripes complete the fresco but are overshadowed by the rust and worm-eaten wood. For the onlooker, an image comes to mind, especially with all the building collapses: playing Jenga in Cuba is dangerous; it can fall on top of you.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Colombia Plans To Send 40 Million Eggs to Cuba Before the End of the Year

So far, 7 million eggs have been sent from the Colombian port of Cartagena

Last March, the Colombian authorities said that the first shipment of eggs was going to be “well received” on the Island / Agronegocios Colombia

14ymedio, Havana,8 June 2024 — Colombia will send 40 million eggs to Cuba before the end of the year, as reported by Prensa Latina this Friday, citing the Colombian authorities. The Latin American country had already sent a shipment to the Island in March, and it will have to send another 33 million eggs to meet the goal set by the Government of Gustavo Petro. The amount should not be difficult for Colombia, a country that in a single day is capable of producing 50 million eggs, according to the National Federation of Poultry Farmers of Colombia (FENAVI), which manages the business with Cuba.

The product has a high demand in the Cuban market, which is hampered by the multiple absences of eggs. In the midst of a notable shortage, to which is added the inability to pay the high prices of other proteins such as red meat or pork, Cubans resort to eggs as an alternative, although this product has also reached prohibitive prices. A carton of 30 eggs, as confirmed by 14ymedio in its monitoring of the Cuban markets, can cost more than 3,000 pesos.

The Cuban Government’s operation to try to alleviate the egg shortage with Colombian imports – just as Venezuela does – began a year ago, when the regime initiated negotiations with the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA). The deal closed in Havana last July, but it wasn’t until last December that the Island’s National Animal Health Center gave the green light. So far, there have been 7 million eggs imported from the Colombian port of Cartagena.

The first eggs were sent last March. At that time, ICA briefly reported that two containers had begun their trip to Cuba, without detailing an arrival date. In them, 17,280 cartons of 30 eggs up each were loaded, totaling continue reading

518,400 eggs.

Colombia is also considering exporting liquid egg to Cuba, intended for industrial processes such as pastry

For Gonzalo Moreno, president of FENAVI, Cuba has become a “natural” market for Colombia, not only because of the political ties that exist between the two countries but also because “we can compete with price and quality,” he told Prensa Latina.

During his participation in the XXI FENAVI Congress held this week in Bogotá, Moreno added that although the Colombian poultry industry is also targeting other Caribbean countries with a view to exporting eggs, “Cuba is now the market.”

He said that they are also considering exporting liquid egg to Cuba, destined for industrial processes such as pastry. “A first refrigerated test container will be sent soon,” Moreno said.

Cuba’s ambassador to Colombia, Javier Camaño – who received as a diplomatic “commission” the collection of the eggs last March – told Prensa Latina that the announcement by Colombian businessmen to reach the goal of 40 million eggs sent to the Island by the end of 2024, “constitutes excellent news that demonstrates the great potential in trade relations between the two nations.”

Neither of the parties referred to how much Cuba pays for the shipment. In Colombia, an egg is priced at 581 Colombian pesos, which is equivalent to 0.14 dollars or 37 Cuban pesos. Although the value is only a third of the almost 100 pesos that an egg can cost on the Island – between 2,700 and 2,800 pesos for a carton of 30 eggs – it is likely that the cost of importating will end up increasing its price in the Cuban market.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Woman Farmer Aspires to Produce Sustainable Food in Cuba

According to experts, it is a creative response to the environmental crisis

Farmer Ivonne Moreno / Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

IPS (via 14ymedio), Havana, 6 June 2024 — Farmer Ivonne Moreno sees permaculture, in addition to a philosophy of life, as a sustainable model to produce food, reduce the environmental footprint and project sustainable communities in urban and rural areas of Cuba. These and other principles have guided the planting of dozens of species of fruit trees, vegetables, tubers, aromatic and medicinal plants, in addition to shrubs and woody trees on her La Luisa farm, located in El Cotorro, one of the 15 municipalities that make up the Cuban capital.

Her food forest, as she calls it, provides fruits, seeds, flowers, roots, leaves, condiments, medicinal products and firewood, among other inputs, in addition to serving as a habitat for birds, insects and other animal species that enrich the land and enhance biodiversity.

“When I hear about an endangered fruit, I look for its seed and sow it. I don’t remove the dead leaves in order to preserve the microorganisms in the soil. I also use organic fertilizers from the manure that they throw away in a nearby dairy, along with shells and other waste,” Moreno explained to IPS during a visit to her farm.

Farmer Ivonne Moreno sees permaculture, in addition to a philosophy of life, as a sustainable model for producing food

However, “we have not been able to fully implement the food forest, because there are also animals that must run loose and whose food cannot continue reading

compete with that of people. You have to design it properly,” said the 51-year-old farmer, married and the mother of two daughters.

Moreno’s connection with La Luisa began from childhood when she spent her holidays on the 0.7-hectare farm acquired by her great-great-grandfather in 1878.

After residing in a populous area of the capital, in 2010 she decided to settle definitively in those lands where “the connection with nature is direct.”

And, without knowing it, “I began to do permaculture. I assumed it as an ideology of life, with an awareness of taking care of the environment and generating as little waste as possible.”

It is, she added, “a way of living whether you are on a plot in the countryside or in an apartment in the city.”

Permaculture is a concept that has evolved, from “permanent agriculture” in its beginnings, to a more contemporary one related to “permaculture.”

As a design tool, with principles, practices and attitudes, it conceives of sustainable human settlements

As a design tool, with principles, practices and attitudes, it conceives of sustainable human settlements in which people coexist harmoniously with other animal and plant species, and the environmental impact is mitigated.

The principle of sustainable agriculture can also be applied to the construction of ecological housing, as well as to a greater use of natural resources and clean energy sources. It has political, economic and social connotations.

According to experts, permaculture is a creative response to the environmental crisis, in a world where energy availability and resources become global problems.

Permaculture arrived in Cuba in the early 90s of the last century. The economic crisis on the Island conditioned the development of agro-productive systems on a more sustainable basis, more due to the lack of resources to acquire fuel, machinery and agrochemicals than consciously.

A development network and groups of permaculturists extend throughout Cuba, articulated around the non-governmental Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation of Nature and Man (FANJ), the main promoter of this practice in Cuba. Established in 1994, the FANJ is a civil cultural and scientific institution dedicated to the research and promotion of educational, community and research programs and projects, in particular those related to culture, society and the environment.

“I took a beginning workshop at the FANJ. Then came the design workshop. My husband Juan Carlos Martínez and I are facilitators of this knowledge, and the farm is the headquarters of the permaculture group in the municipality of Cotorro, which brings together about 10 people,” Moreno said.

She specified that, from the classes, she has a “base plane” and a “contextual plane.” The first reflects what exists and the other what is projected, to make a system as efficient as possible.

Moreno’s “dream” includes the construction of a biodigestor, as well as the installation of windmills, solar panels, fish ponds and cisterns to store rainwater

In the case of La Luisa, Moreno’s “dream” includes the construction of a biodigestor, as well as the installation of windmills, solar panels, fish ponds and cisterns to store rainwater.

“We would have liked to move faster and have all those systems up and running. But the economic situation of the country makes it very difficult to buy materials and supplies,” explained the farmer, who takes care of the farm along with her husband and the occasional support of her father.

She highlighted “the repair of several parts of the house with natural materials, without using cement, to promote air conditioning. We also separate the black water from the gray water and use filters. It seems to work well, because where the gray water flows, the grass remains green.”

More than a hundred hives of melipone bees – a species without stings – favor pollination; they provide honey, pan de abeja (bee bread) – concentrated pollen – and wax, products that, in the absence of chemicals, reinforce their nutritional, medicinal and cosmetic value.

“My dream is to have at least 200 hives, but the conditions have to be created. For now, as part of the project, we promote training on the management and care of hives, because it is feasible to have them anywhere that the bees can be guaranteed an adequate flowering,” Moreno stressed.

She commented that a problematic context such as the Covid pandemic showed the opportunities of permaculture, “because even shut in we had a variety of food instead of depending on one or two crops, which is a factor of vulnerability to phenomena such as hurricanes.”

A problematic context such as the Covid pandemic showed the opportunities of permaculture

The production of La Luisa is mainly for self-consumption, but surplus fruit and honey are also sold, and donations are made to minors with oncological conditions, as well as to the homes for girls and boys without family protection.

In addition, as part of a local development project, pending approval, Moreno wants the farm to serve as an experience to learn about permaculture in a specific space, which would also bring income to make the exploitation sustainable.

Specialists agree that stimulating permaculture in Cuba would contribute to food security, environmental sanitation, the rescue and preservation of agricultural culture, and job creation for the design of urban and rural spaces more in line with needs and native traditions.

It would stimulate the diversification of clean energy sources, enhance recycling, improve soil treatment and use water more rationally.

Experts on the subject point out that family space has been the scale of the introduction of permaculture in Cuba.

Statistics show that family and private agriculture contribute 70 percent of the food produced at the national level, usually through more efficient use of land and better soil conservation compared to conventional agricultural systems.

Family and private farming contributes 70 percent of the food produced in Cuba nationwide

However, it is a problematic issue in a country with a deficit of agricultural production that maintains high prices and forces the import of 80 percent of food for domestic consumption.

Most Cuban families devote more than 70 percent of their monthly income to food.

Although in recent years multiple actions have been developed to move towards an agriculture with a sustainability focus, the paradigm of productivity of conventional agriculture in Cuba still dominates.

Experts and small producers want to change this approach, which prioritizes obtaining large volumes of production, despite the high economic, energy and environmental costs.

In addition to degrading natural resources and increasing vulnerability to climate change, it is considered a partial and unsustainable solution that also limits the transition to food sovereignty.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Gente De Zona Launches the Single ‘Eres Tú’ To Get the Audience Dancing This Summer

The Cuban duo Gente de Zona, Randy Malcom (l) and Alexander Delgado (r), pose in an archive photo / EFE/Marlon Pacheco

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 6 June 2024 — The Cuban duo Gente de Zona releases their new single, Eres Tú, an “exciting musical anthem” that seeks to get the public dancing this summer with a mixture of reggaeton, tropical rhythms and afro-beats, their communication agency said on Thursday. The song is produced by Alejandro Arce and Angel Arce (Los Pututis), also responsible for the production of the album Demasiado [Too Much] from Gente De Zona, from which this last single has been extracted.

Gente de Zona released, last April, their new studio album Demasiado, a set of ten songs that reflect an amalgam of rhythms and genres, as well as the “danceable” style of this Cuban duo.

The album includes compositions by Alexander Delgado Hernández and Randy Malcom Martínez, the members of the duo. continue reading

“Gente de Zona continues to enjoy the success of its album Demasiado and prepares to bring all of Cuba’s flavor to Europe,” says the statement in reference to the 22-concert tour that the duo begins on June 21 in Casablanca (Morocco).

“Gente de Zona continues to enjoy the success of its album ’Demasiado’ and prepares to bring all of Cuba’s flavor to Europe

The popular salsa and reggaeton duo will visit Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, France, Italy, Spain (where they will perform nine concerts), Belgium and Germany. The last concert will be held in Rimini (Italy) on August 4.

The single of the six Latin Grammy winners is accompanied by a video clip that is the last of Demasiado, the Series, a collection of six music clips made by Cuban director Pedro Vázquez that reflect “all the energy and joy of the Cuban duo.”

Winner also of 12 Latin Billboards, Gente de Zona made the international leap with the help of the 2014 single Bailando, along with Enrique Iglesias and Descemer Bueno.

Throughout its career, Gente de Zona has collaborated with artists such as Jennifer López, Kylie Minogue, Thalía, Pitbull, Carlos Vives, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Gerardo Ortiz, Carlos Rivera and Deorro, among others.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Solar Parks in Cuba Are Promised Despite the Collapse of Renewable Energies in 2023

Renewables fell on the Island by 6.4% compared to the previous year and barely accounted for 3.6%

Russia “is actively working” on Cuban soil to construct facilities that use renewable resources for energy production / IPS

14ymedio, Havana, 6 June 2024 — The Government insists on presenting renewable energies as the great hope to solve Cuba’s energy crisis, despite the fact that, just three days ago, the report published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) could not paint a worse picture.

Renewables fell on the Island by 6.4% compared to the previous year and barely accounted for 3.6% of energy generation, far from the official target of 24% for 2030. But this Thursday, the official press returns to the charge: the plans for the development of renewable energy do not stop. In Holguín, for example, two solar parks will be built with a generation capacity of 20 megawatts (MW). The “land movement” for the works of the first of them has already begun in the People’s Council of Cajimaya, municipality of Mayarí.

According to Ahora, quoting Fernando Hechavarría Pupo, an official of the Holguín Electric Company, the second park will be established in the Miraflores neighborhood, in the municipality of Moa, where “soil studies and excavations are being carried out.” A third is planned for the town of Potrerillo, but here, Hechavarría Pupo explained, “the panels cannot be mounted on the ground, so a casting process that will take longer is necessary.” continue reading

The authorities have promised to install a total of 42,000 solar panels by December 2024 or January 2025

The authorities have promised to install a total of 42,000 solar panels by December 2024 or January 2025, when, they say, “their installation will be completed by providing energy” to the National Electro-Energy System (SEN).

This Thursday, the Russian Deputy Minister of Energy, Evgeni Grabchak, also pointed out to the Sputnik news agency that his country “is actively working” in the construction on Cuban soil of facilities that use renewable resources for energy production.

“As far as the construction of power plants and networks is concerned, it is above all with Cuba that we maintain an intense collaboration,” Grabchak said during the St. Petersburg Forum, which takes place until Saturday, June 8. Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas is participating in the Forum, seeking financing for the 2030 Cuban Development Plan.

According to ONEI, in 2023 Cuba imported 73.5% more fuel than the previous year to produce electricity in rented generators and floating power plants. The energy generated by imported oil reached the equivalent of 31% of that produced in thermoelectric plants with the national fuel.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Why Do Remittances to Cubans Only Provide Subsistence?

People waiting in line to get their remittances / Ernesto Mastrascusa / EFE

14ymedio, Yaxis Cires, Madrid, 20 May 2024 — Last summer 27% of Cuban households received some sort of remittance from relatives living abroad according to a 2023 report* by the Madrid-based Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH). This is a significant reduction compared to the previous two years (34% and 37%, respectively) and is presumably due to efforts by many families to help their relatives get out of Cuba by any means possible. Another factor for the decline could be a certain level of donor fatigue after decades of not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Faced with daily challenges such as power outages, shortages of food, medicine and transportation as well as the lack of basic freedoms, many Cubans rely on aid from abroad just to get by. This is especially true for retirees, whose monthly pensions are worth less than a carton of 30 eggs or a kilogram of powdered milk. But nothing is easy on the island, which many on the international left portray as the model of social rights.

According to the aforementioned study, 41% of those who receive remittances said they do not have enough to survive. Another 34% said that, while they do have enough, they cannot afford any extras. It is difficult to escape the reality of poverty that today affects 88% of households and that causes at least 78% of Cubas to sacrifice one or two meals a day.

In quite a few countries, remittances have helped energize national economies. For example, many Colombians and Mexicans living abroad invest a portion of their income in their native countries, whether that be in small businesses, real estate or their children’s educations. Why is it that, in Cuba, remittances only provide subsistence?

The answer can be found in the disastrous Cuban economy, the lack of freedom, the absence of legal protections, and the state’s dominant role in the economy. A combination of problems endemic to a system that does not work, is poorly managed and is led by a regime with an almost overwhelming distrust of the Cuban exile community, whose money it likes but whose success it fears.

Meanwhile, as the Cuban regime wavers between “not wanting to” and “not knowing how to,” people pay an enormous human cost. An overwhelming hijacking of millions who are subjected to constant pointless demands via state media for sacrifice and reminders that they live in “paradise.”

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*Editor’s note: The article’s author is director of political strategy for the OCDH.

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Cuba Enters the UNICEF Report on Severe Child Poverty

Thirty-three percent of children under five years of age in Cuba suffer from moderate poverty / 14ymedio

14ymedio/EFE, Madrid, 6 June 2024 — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has included Cuba for the first time in its report on severe child poverty. The text, published on Wednesday, indicates that 9% of the island’s child population suffers from severe poverty; that is, they have a maximum of two of the eight foods considered necessary for a healthy life. In addition, it points out that 33% of minors (considered up to five years old) suffer from moderate poverty, which means that they have at their disposal between three and four of those foods.

Cuba did not appear in the institution’s 2022 report on the same issue. In 2021, as stated in one of the graphs, it was below 5%, the limit set by Unicef to consider the existence of serious child poverty.

These data join others from different organizations, demonstrating the resounding fall of the country in all tables of prosperity. Last February, it was announced that Cuba fell 30 places in the UN Human Development Index (HDI) in just 15 years, surpassing the figures of the Special Period and destroying the traditional propaganda of the regime. continue reading

In its report this Wednesday, UNICEF records that one in four children under the age of five in the world – about 181 million – suffers from severe food poverty. This increases their chances of “emaciation” by up to 50%, a form of malnutrition that endangers their lives.

One in four children under the age of five in the world – about 181 million – suffers from severe food poverty

Of the total, 65% reside in only 20 countries; about 64 million children are in South Asia and 59 million in sub-Saharan Africa. In the case of Latin America and the Caribbean, where Cuba is counted, 9% of minors suffer from severe poverty (a total of 5 million) and 28% from moderate poverty (18 million).

In the East Asia-Pacific region – China, Indonesia, Burma and the Philippines – there are 59 million children suffering from food poverty.

The text analyzes the impacts and causes of food deprivation among the youngest in the world in almost 100 countries and in all income groups. It warns that millions of children under the age of five cannot access or consume a nutritious and diverse diet to maintain optimal growth and development in early childhood and in later stages.

Four out of five children in this situation are fed only with breast milk/milk and/or a staple food with starch, such as rice, corn or wheat. Fewer than 10% of these minors eat fruits and vegetables, and fewer than 5% eat nutrient-rich foods such as eggs, fish, poultry or meat.

“Children who live in a situation of severe food poverty are children who live on the edge of the abyss. At the moment, that is the reality for millions of children, and this can have an irreversible negative impact on their survival, growth and brain development,” said the Executive Director of Unicef, Catherine Russell, in statements collected by EFE.

The report also warns that, although countries are still recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of growing inequalities, conflicts and the climate crisis have raised food prices and the cost of living to record levels.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Oscar Ruiz Moreira, Former Director of the ‘Noticiero Nacional Deportivo’, Arrives in the United States

His wife and daughter remain on the island waiting to be reunited soon

Oscar Ruiz Moreira with his family, before he left for the United States / Facebook/DPorto Sports LLC

14ymedio, Havana, 6 June 2024 — Tele Rebelde loses another key player due to the exodus the Island is experiencing. Oscar Ruiz Moreira, who for a long time was the star director of the National Sports News, left the country and has been in the United States since May.”Tele Rebelde loses one of the good guys both as a professional and as a person,” journalist Yasel Porto said on Facebook.

Speaking of Ruiz Moreira, who was also in charge of the Glorias Deportivas program, Porto said, “you could say that he was the best on a personal level among all the television directors of the channel, despite the always very complex and questionable atmosphere that has been experienced in this place.”

Ruiz Moreira’s wife and daughter remain on the island waiting to be reunited with him in a short time in the United States.”I hope he can soon be reunited with all his beloved people so that longing and distance do not prevent the possibility of a better future.”

Oscarito, as he was known, spent 35 years in the television medium, “his life,” as he acknowledged in an interview published on Thursday by Cuban continue reading

Television.”In it, I have grown, studied, worked on something that caught my attention since I was a child and where I have been fulfilled as a person,” Porto said.

“They have been unfair to me, but it has never affected my professionalism or the quality of my work, and it has always taught me to get to the end of things”

However, Ruiz Moreira also pointed out that at the television workplace “they have been unfair to me, but it has never affected my professionalism or the quality of my work, and it has always taught me to get to the end of things.”

In the same interview, the filmmaker, who began his career as a production assistant, lamented that today many young people believe that, because they graduate from the Higher Institute of Art, or make a video clip, they are already television directors and, “that is something else, it has to do with trying to feel the same as those who see the product from home.”

In his long career, Oscarito directed the Noticiero del mediodía, the Noticiero ANSOC of the Canal Habana, the Ponte al día newscast and the Noticiero Nacional Deportivo. He was also in charge of remote sports programs and participated in the Olympic Games.

Ruiz Moreira’s departure adds to that of narrator and sports commentator Ángel Luis Fernández, who arrived in Miami a few days ago through the humanitarian parole parole program, which as of May had favored 95,000 Cubans since its coming into effect in January 2023.

On May 4, the arrival in the United States of Angel Andrés Hernández Vargas, also known as Andy Vargas as announced. The “iconic” figure of the Coco radio station and especially of the Industriales team “was sponsored by one of his two sons, a resident of Miami.”

Translated by LAR

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Cuba Will Host 46 Artists From 22 Countries at the First Biennial of Political Humor in Havana / 14yMedio

The event is organized by the National Council of Plastic Arts and the Ministry of Culture / EFE

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, June 6, 2024 — The event will be held from June 14 to 28, its organizers reported this Thursday at a press conference. The theme of this event will be the Fight against Neo-Fascism and will have political cartoonists from countries such as Mexico, Venezuela and France. The event, organized by the National Council of Plastic Arts and the Ministry of Culture, will feature graphic exhibitions, conversations, workshops and film screenings in cinemas in the capital.

According to the organizers, the biennial seeks to “explore in a playful way the impact of globalization and the phenomena associated with it, from a perspective of political humor.”

Cuba has been repeatedly criticized by NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for limiting freedom of expression in general and, in particular, limiting its enjoyment on the internet (Decree 370) and on the part of its artists (Decree 349).

“There are always limits to humor,” regardless of “each of the spaces where it is expressed”

In May 2022, the Cuban Parliament also approved a new Criminal Code that, among other matters, includes sanctions of up to three years for those who insult senior public officials. continue reading

Cuba published, this Wednesday, in the Official Gazette its first Social Communication Law, which prohibits, among other things, the dissemination of information that can “destabilize the socialist state” both in the media and in “cyberspace.”

EFE asked in the presentation of the biennial about the possibility of creating political satire of the Government or the leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba, as happens in other countries in the region.

In this regard, Arístides Hernández, winner of the National Humor Award 2020 and part of the committee that selected the works exhibited at the event, said at the press conference that “there are always limits in humor,” regardless of “each of the spaces where it is expressed.”

“In Islamic countries it is impossible to paint a caricature against the prophet Muhammad, and in the case of Cuba there are limits in humor in relation to the historical figures of the Revolution. That type of satire does not appear in the media here or, in the case of Spain, with the kings,” he argued.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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One Hundred of the 692 Existing Ration Stores in Las Tunas, Cuba, Were Looted in 2023

Sugar, rice, cooking oil and coffee from the basic family basket top the list of what was stolen, worth two million pesos

The authorities recognize that many of these establishments are in poor condition and without bars on the doors to protect them / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 6 June 2024 — One hundred bodegas (ration stores) in Las Tunas were looted by thieves in 2023. So far this year, there have been eighteen. The authorities of the province expressed alarm about the events to the official press this Wednesday but did not hesitate to focus on the material losses and damages to the State, although it is the population that clearly suffers the most.

According to Periódico 26, of all the robberies that occurred last year in state entities in the province, the “booty” of the bodegas represents 84.7%, with two million pesos of reported losses. “Of the products, 43,900 pounds of brown sugar and 2,900 pounds of refined; 30,000 pounds of rice; 244 gallons of cooking oil; 1,000 packages of coffee; and 1,180 pounds of beans, preserves and peas fell into the wrong hands,” the newspaper listed, complaining that the residents had to see it disappear from the basic family basket “in one stroke.”

The most affected municipality was Puerto Padre, with 30 robbed bodegas and more than a half-million pesos in losses, a quarter of the total in the province.

“How have the thieves been able to act with impunity, to the extent that there are some stores that have been robbed several times?” asks Periódico 26, and it immediately offers the answer. According to reports from the Ministry of the Interior in the province, thefts occur between two and six in the morning, usually in premises with precarious security (bars on the continue reading

windows, night guards) and with poor lighting, problems that it is up to the Directorate of Internal Trade to solve.

The provincial director of the ministry, Raymel Espinosa Saborit, told the newspaper that of the 692 bodegas in the province, about 100 are in poor condition and “lack security provisions,” and about half, 377, do not have guards hired by Commerce.

Espinosa explained that an analysis is currently being carried out in the province’s staff to offer custodian positions

Delving into this last point, Espinosa explained that an analysis is currently being carried out in the province’s workforce to offer guard positions to the bodegas that need it. However, offering the job is not a guarantee of anything. “We have a positive example: the municipality of Colombia is the only one that has its own guards in its 44 bodegas. Parallel to that reality is the problem that few people want to work as guards, so it is useless to offer employment,” he argues.

Likewise, in one of the cases of robbery counted by the authorities, the thieves took advantage of the fact that the guard left his post, to loot the El Sazón bodega last March. “They carried off two bags of rice, 3,000 boxes of cigars and some carbonated soft drinks. Of course, the guard was dismissed,” the new bodega administrator, Yoel Rey González, who has been in the position for barely a month, told the media.

A similar fate befell the administrator of the La Roca bodega, who was replaced by Malena Reynaldo on March 4, ten days after the place suffered a robbery. “They took everything: rice, sugar, oil, cigars, rum. Even the display bags that had sand for weight. The store was completely empty, and the neighbor’s camera recorded everything,” says the woman, who still returns occasionally at night with her husband to make sure that everything is okay.

Reynaldo is the mother of two girls, and her house, like that of her co-worker, is far from the establishment, so it is difficult for her, after a working day, to also take care of security due to the lack of a guard. Her effort goes even further: “The unit was very vulnerable, without any custodian or security. The two of us who work here paid to put bars on the doors and bought a new lock and key. All that cost 28,000 pesos that we paid with the contribution of some neighbors, and the window is still missing,” says the woman.

Periódico 26 criticizes the fact that the worker must pay out of her own pocket to keep the merchandise safe

For its part, Periódico 26 criticizes the fact that the worker must pay out of her own pocket to keep the merchandise safe and also has to go check the bodega from time to time. “In our inquiries we learned that they do it because, if there is a robbery, ’they are held responsible’. Of course, that is a misconception,” says the newspaper, but it’s obvious that the predecessors of Reynaldo and Rey were dismissed after the robberies.

With an attitude unusual for the official press, the newspaper even proposes solutions for the most urgent problems. “The poor lighting is a difficulty that could be eradicated, perhaps, from a joint effort with the Electric Company. Given the lack of lighting, why not move some of those lamps to the front of the bodegas, the most important economic objective of a community?” it proposes, but this time it’s the constant blackouts that are not taken into account.

As for security, “filling the guard positions is the mission of the Directorate of Commerce, and if there are no people willing to assume them, they must go to the specialized protection services,” the newspaper adds.

However, the final “scolding” is aimed at the residents of the province: “These bodegas belong to the Cuban State, but their goods belong to the population, so we are facing everyone’s problem. Hence, living with the lack of vigilance is inadmissible,” it argues.

“Robbing an establishment of this caliber doesn’t just happen by arriving and taking something in five minutes. It takes time and transport; therefore, it seems science fiction that no one hears or sees anything, especially when most of the robberies are committed in the urban area, with housing in the vicinity,” it adds.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Reporter Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca Arrives in Miami After a Forced Exit

The Cuban opponent, Yuri Valle Roca, is arrested by the Cuban police / EFE

14ymedio, Havana, 5 June 2025 — Cuban journalist and opponent Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca arrived this morning in Miami with his wife, Eralidis Frómeta, after being forced out by the Cuban regime, ending the three years that the reporter had been in prison. “I received with deep emotion the news of the arrival in Miami of my friend and Cuban political prisoner Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca. After almost three years of unjust imprisonment, Yuri is finally free, although under the painful context of exile. I am filled with hope and relief,” wrote Normando Hernández, general director of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Press (ICLEP).

Valle Roca obtained humanitarian parole through his wife at the United States embassy in Havana, a condition imposed by the Government to release him in exchange for exile.

Valle Roca obtained humanitarian parole through his wife at the United States embassy in Havana, a condition imposed by the Government to release him in exchange for exile

“The arrival of Valle Roca in Miami marks the end of a painful chapter and the hope of a new beginning. His release is a reminder of the importance of surveillance and international pressure in the fight for human rights and freedom of expression. We celebrate his freedom, and the fight for justice, human rights, freedom and democracy in Cuba continues,” ICLEP stated on its website. continue reading

Valle Roca was scheduled to land in Miami at 10:35 on Wednesday on an American Airlines flight that was delayed.

The journalist, arrested in June 2021, was sentenced 13 months and later to five years in prison for the crimes of “enemy propaganda of a continuous nature and resistance.”

Valle Roca, 62, is the nephew of opposition leader Vladimiro Roca, who died last year, and the grandson of communist leader Blas Roca Calderío. In the time he has been imprisoned, the reporter has suffered the 15 types of torture described by the Madrid-based organization Prisoners Defenders (PD), which presented a document to the UN denouncing patterns of ill-treatment in Cuban prisons.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Cuba the Lowly Cucumber Is Becoming More Expensive Every Day

One of the cheapest vegetables in produce markets has gone from 50 to 300 pesos in the span of a year.

This week, cucumbers at the produce market at 19th and B streets in Havana’s Vedado district rose to 300 pesos a pound. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, May 26, 2024 — Appreciated by some and disdained by others, the cucumber can cause a pitched battle at the dinner table if there are any of its staunch detractors are there. But, until recently, it mostly went unnoticed. And then its price spiked.

This week, cucumbers in the produce market at 19th and B streets in Havana’s Vedado district rose to 300 pesos a pound. Available in medium and large sizes, the shiny specimens on display at one of the best stocked markets in the Cuban capital garner attention for reasons other than their attractive presentation. “I don’t know if I’m here or in Dubai, because, at this price, it doesn’t seem like we’re in Cuba,” a customer complained on Friday.

“I don’t know if I’m here or in Dubai, because, at this price, it doesn’t seem like we’re in Cuba,” a customer complained on Friday

Just a year ago, the price of cucumbers at this same market was 50 pesos a pound. Why is it that it now costs six times more than it did just twelve months ago? The answer points to the country’s pervasive inflation, which has raised the cost of living, especially food. “With the price of vegetables these days, you can’t afford to eat healthy,” says the woman. continue reading

“In the past I’ve bought tomatoes when they were in season. And at my house we really like avocados in the summer. But lately I’ve been switching over to cucumbers because for me, they’re a better deal.” According to this consumer, they offer some practical advantages that make cooking easier. “They last a long time if you store them properly in the refrigerator. You can cut off one piece to make a salad and save the rest for another meal.”

Still, the cucumber has ardent opponents in virtually every home. “My son doesn’t like it because he says it gives him digestion problems,” the woman admits. “My grandmother showed me how to avoid this by first cutting off the ends and rubbing them against the cucumber. You also have make some grooves in it with a fork,” she explains.

Along with sweet potato and pumpkin — the most complete and cheapest food items provided by many private businesses — the cucumber is the item most often left uneaten on dining hall trays and in cardboard boxes. While diners are quick to devour “congris,” the very thin pork cutlet that looks like it was cut with a laser rather than a knife, they disdain the slices of the squash with the very white seeds.

Graphic showing the cost of cucumbers in the produce market at the corner of 19th and B streets in Havana’s Vedado district / 14ymedio

Though they may avoid it when it shows up on their plates, many people use it on their faces, prepare concoctions with it to hydrate their skin, or put it in pitchers of water to drink when dieting. Self-care has elevated it to the category of a miracle drug that both removes bags under the eyes and makes dull hair shiny.

“I buy it for my mother but nobody else in my house will eat it,” admits a young man who has just paid 370 pesos for three cucumbers at the market known as La Boutique. “You can’t buy tomatoes because they’re very bad at this time of year, lettuce and chard season is already over and avocados are just starting to come to market so the price is sky-high. All that’s left is the cucumber.”

“My mom sometimes makes pickles. Recently she has been obsessed with the idea that we have to prepare food that doesn’t require refrigeration because, with these power outages, everything spoils,” the young man says. “I don’t like it, because when I was I was at school they gave it to me in the morning and in the afternoon. But I will eat it in a pinch.” He adds, of course, he prefers it with some oil, vinegar. “And if you can put a few slices of onion on top, even better.”

Without even trying, the young man has assembled a list of ingredients that would now cost any Cuban home in the three figures to prepare. A dish worthy of someone on a Dubai budget.

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