Translating Cuba – Page 195 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Russia Says It Has the Resources To ‘Guarantee Cuba’s Food Security’

Moscow doubled its agro-industrial exports to the Island in 2023

Ricardo Cabrisas (second from right), along with senior Russian officials and members of the Cuban delegation / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, 8 June 2024 — During the tour carried out by Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas in search of funding for the Development Plan of Cuba until 2030, at the International Economic Forum of St. Petersburg 2024 (SPIEF), it was reported that exports of agro-industrial products from Russia to Cuba doubled last year, compared to 2022.

According to official data, the trade between Russia and Cuba in 2022 amounted to 451 million dollars, although Moscow intended to improve that number the following year. Most of the trade was agricultural, although the Russians also invested in construction and tourism.

According to the official press, the Russian Minister of Agriculture, Oksana Lut, indicated that Moscow believes that it is possible to further expand sales to the Island. Lut assured that her country has all the necessary resources to “guarantee the food security of the Cuban State.” continue reading

For Cuba it is important to attract business on Cabrisas’ tour, and this is why it is among the largest delegations to the forum

“Russia and Cuba are historically united by close relations. Not only is political dialogue developing, but economic-commercial cooperation is also gaining momentum,” Lut added.

For Cuba it is important to attract business on Cabrisas’ tour, and this is why it is among the largest delegations to the forum. It includes Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, head of Transport; Julio Garmendía Peña, ambassador to Moscow; Carlos Luis Jorge Méndez, first deputy minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment; Ileana Núñez Mordoche, director of Europe for the Foreign Ministry, and Inalvis Bonachea González, director of commercial policy in the region.

Last Monday, Cabrisas met with Grigori Karasin, head of the International Affairs Committee of the Council of the Russian Federation; Andrei Shevchenko, head of the cooperation group with the Cuban Assembly; and Senator Andrei Anatolyevich. But his agenda also has an important appointment ahead, with the meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic-Commercial and Scientific-Technical Relations, which he will attend with his counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, to “review the fundamental issues addressed by this bilateral mechanism.”

Other areas in which Cuba seeks to secure support involve financing, tourism, the industrial sector, the purchase of Russian wheat and the possible lease of land in usufruct on the Island. To these is added the Cuban pharmaceutical sector, with the announcement this Friday of an investment of 11.3 million dollars in the state company BioCubaFarma.

This visit takes place as part of the announcement of the sending of warships from Moscow to Havana, next week, at a time when the Island is desperately looking for a partner to help it overcome an unprecedented economic crisis. In return, offers Russia a platform to challenge Washington in its own area of influence.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With a House Full of Garbage in the Heart of the Capital, Havana Breaks Records for Unhealthiness

In Old Havana, on the corner of Aponte and Gloria, a building in ruins was the living image of the pestilence

A neighbor shouted at someone passing by: “Take a look, boy, at this plague, see how dirty everything is?” / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 10 June 2024 — The stench was persistent throughout the capital this Monday. The day dawned cool and threatened rain from early on, but the air, instead of cleaning the odors, carried them and brought effluents of sewage, decomposing food and dead animals. In Old Havana, on the corner of Aponte and Gloria, a ruined building was the living picture of the pestilence. Uninhabited, roofless and with a large part of the walls collapsed, its ground floor is occupied today by heaps and heaps of garbage, wrapped in a cloud of flies and other insects.

Next to the house garbage dump, however, there is a property with residents. A neighbor shouted at someone passing by: “Take a look, boy, at this plague, see how dirty everything is?” Faced with the disgusted gesture of the young man, who was almost running to leave the place behind as soon as possible, he asked, “Give me a little help, I’m sick.”

“Oropouche, dengue and even the bubonic plague are going to take us away if this continues”

Another woman, who crossed the sidewalk in the face of the stench, murmured: “Oropouche, dengue and even the bubonic plague are going to take us away if this continues.” continue reading

The lack of fuel and the precarious Communal Services make the refuse flourish on every corner, not only in Havana, but in other places on the Island, including Matanzas, Las Tunas, Santa Clara and Manzanillo, as reported by 14ymedio.

A few days ago, the accumulation of waste in Havana Bay, to the point of preventing navigation, forced the authorities to suspend the service of the Regla ferry. This newspaper confirmed on Saturday that, although the route that connects the port of Havana with the other side of the bay was now operating, garbage was still floating in the water.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Díaz-Canel Urges Cubans To Produce Their Own Food To Curb Imports

Miguel Díaz-Canel urged the cadres to work to achieve food sovereignty because he believes there are resources. / Periódico 26]

14ymedio, Madrid, 10 June 2024 — The echo of Miguel Díaz-Canel’s scolding this Friday in Majibacoa still resonates throughout the Island: “Here there is enough land to produce for the entire municipality, to give food to all of Las Tunas. Now, you have to work.” A few hours after that diatribe, which has become common in the president’s tours of the Island, the publication of data on chicken imports from the United States once again confirmed the dependence on the outside to feed the Cuban population.

Decentralization towards municipalities is part of the government strategy of recent years to dilute the responsibilities of the leadership of the regime. And Díaz-Canel turned to it again in the municipality of Las Tunas, where he called on the cadres “to work” to get results, while the officials took notes without raising their heads. The president accused the territorial leaders of spending time in offices and meetings and not going to the base.

“We are separated from reality and are not doing what we need to. We have to reach a time when this country is self-sufficient with food. That is what will give us real sovereignty, not being dependent on imports, but you have to believe that, and each municipality must provide its own food and not be thinking about what will come in from the [ration system family] basket. The basket will be for more.” continue reading

“You have to believe that, and each municipality must provide its own food and not be thinking about what will come in from the [ration system family] basket”

The expression used by the one person ultimately responsible for the country, understood by thousands of Cubans as a call to take the chestnuts out of the fire by themselves, has not been well received. In reality, Díaz-Canel was shifting his responsibility to an intermediary, while, at the highest level, he continues to negotiate investments and imports, in addition to donations, from countries – partners or not – instead of allocating funds from the national budget for food security on the Island.

“We can’t come and tell you this; it must be you who find the solutions from the knowledge you have of your own reality. The economy must be analyzed from its indicators,” the president said on the same day that the data on chicken imports from the United States for the month of April were known.

This month, the amount of poultry meat acquired from the neighboring country fell sharply compared to the previous month. In April 15,169.6 tons of the product arrived on the Island, 42.6% less than in March, when the sum amounted to 26,413, and half as much as in January, when the total exceeded 30,000 tons.

Accordingly, the value was also reduced, although proportionally less (-38.2%), since it increased the price per kilogram. In the fourth month of the year, 18.17 million dollars were spent, with a cost of 1.20 dollars per kilo (8.1% more than last month, when that same amount was at 1.11 dollars). In March, $29.42 million was paid for chicken meat imported from the United States.

In general terms, the first quarter of this year exceeded the volume of purchases from the U.S. by 2.6%. As of April 2023, the Island had imported 86,277 tons of chicken meat compared to 88,505 this year. Since the statistics do not distinguish between what goes to the State and what goes to private enterprises, the increase in imports could be attributed to the latter.

Since the statistics do not distinguish between what goes to the State and what goes to private enterprises, the increase in imports could be attributed to the latter

The increase in expenditure was 18.6%, due to the increase in the cost of the product, much more substantial than the volume, due to the average increase in weight. Thus, in the first quarter of 2023, 85,666 million dollars were paid by Cuba for the product, compared to 101,531 million in the same period in 2024. Payments, under the laws governing the US embargo, which since 2001 have authorized the sale of food and medical products to the Cuban population, must be made in cash and in advance, conditions that the Government points out as seriously harmful, although the history of non-payments by the Cuban State is one of the reasons for these demands.

Since this exemption was adopted, food products have been sold from the United States to Cuba worth $7,359,331,112, according to data from the Cuba-US Economic and Trade Council (CubaTrade) up to May of this year.

“U.S. chicken meat exports are the most consumed source of animal protein in Cuba and compensate for the acute national agricultural crisis, for which there is no light observed at the end of the tunnel,” said economist Pedro Monreal on Saturday when detailing the latest available figures.

Meanwhile, in Majibacoa, Díaz-Canel continued to take responsibility to the smallest possible scale. “The municipalities are the first that must defend the companies of their territory; otherwise, municipal autonomy does not exist,” he insisted.

“The municipalities are the first that must defend the companies of their territory; otherwise, municipal autonomy does not exist”

Among the president’s companions were Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and the first secretary in the province, Walter Simón Noris. Neither of them understood, judging by their words, why there is no more control and “confronting illegalities” and why the membership of the party does not grow. “We can’t sleep with all the things left unsolved,” said Simón Noris.

No one questioned, at least out loud, whether the poor results of the agricultural sector have anything to do with the fact that the State’s investments in the first quarter of the year were just 559.7 million pesos (2.8% of the total), compared to the more than 6.7 billion pesos destined for tourism.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Instead of Investments, the Cuban Government Offers Words for the Development of Science

The percentage of state investments in innovation fell from 1.14% in 2011 to 0.55% in 2023

Some 525 million pesos are included for the National Science and Innovation Fund and 100 million for the National Environment Fund / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Madrid, June 10, 2024 — The latest voluntary illusion that the Cuban Government seems to cling to in recent weeks is science, technology and innovation. The minister of the sector, Eduardo Martínez Díaz, a few days ago in a meeting led by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, insisted on this mantra: “The formula to get out of the situation that we have is by using science, introducing its results, applying technologies and innovating in all aspects.”

This Monday, the official press repeats the issue, in an article signed by the same Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment and his deputy minister, Armando Rodríguez Batista, where they explain the “priorities” when implementing the plan. Within an imprecise list of wishes – such as “orienting science and innovation projects more to the solution of specific problems,” “achieving greater interconnectivity between actors” and “enhancing incentives for innovation at different levels” – one objective stands out: “increase investment in research and development activity.”

In addition to including in this the “financing in convertible currencies,” the officials emphasize that at the same time it is necessary to “diversify the sources,” opening the door to private investment, although without saying it specifically. continue reading

At no time is it mentioned where and how that money could come from

Outside the text, in a graph, it is asserted that 2,184 million pesos are “planned” for “17 national programs, 10 sectoral programs and 63 territorial programs in the area of technology and innovation.” 525 million pesos are included for the National Science and Innovation Fund and 100 million for the National Environment Fund. At no time is it mentioned where and how that money could come from.

The Cuban economist Pedro Monreal has not been long in questioning the numbers, and demolishing, in a long thread on X, the plan of “improvement of the System of Science, Technology and Innovation,” which, it seems to him, “casts more shade than light.”

First of all, he asserts that with a national investment of almost 97 billion pesos in 2023 in all sectors – “a level in itself insufficient for economic recovery,” he clarifies -“the figures that are announced for ‘support for science and innovation’ are simply not relevant.” It is “one of the most insignificant sectors in Cuba,” Monreal continues, with an average of 0.81% between 2011 and 2023, “very distant from tourism investment.”

The economist concedes that the regime recognizes that the relative weight of investment in science and innovation is insufficient, but then, “the reasoning becomes confused by identifying it as a problem of statistical ‘underregistration’.” If the current weight were doubled, Monreal suggests, from 0.55% to 1.1%, “science-innovation would remain one of the five least relevant sectors in innovative investment.”

If the current weight were doubled, Monreal suggests, from 0.55% to 1.1%, “science-innovation would continue to be one of the five least relevant sectors in innovative investment

In the graph shared by the economist, in fact, it is striking that the State dedicated only 0.55% of its total investments to that sector in 2023, much less than in 2011, when it gave it 1.14%.

Similarly, the specialist strongly states that “there seems to be some official difficulty in understanding the scale of the innovative investment deficit, the part of the institutional fabric where it should be concentrated, the high risk of that type of investment and the viability of possible sources of financing,” and he criticizes: “Assuming that in Cuba innovation would be promoted without a significant jump in investment in innovation at the company level (not only in research centers) is an incorrect assumption.”

Another “serious problem” of the official explanation observed by Monreal is that “the financing of innovative investment is mainly posed as one of abstract longing” and that the “key point” of “the sources of business financing” is not clear. “The profits would be insufficient,” he says.

A true investment in innovation, he says, “is a long-term, high-risk process, and therefore very difficult to predict in terms of results and return on investment. The Cuban business system has neither effective economic calculation, nor diversity of ownership in firms with scale, nor access to decentralized financing mechanisms, nor the competitive environment necessary for them to function as a locus of innovation,” Monreal concludes about the umpteenth hope to get out of the permanent crisis.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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After a Fall, the Dollar Gains Momentum in Cuba’s Informal Market

On the streets of the Island, the conviction grows that there will be no breaks on the rise of the US currency

The mass exodus that the Island has been experiencing for several years has also ended up crowning the “dollar emperor.” / EFE

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 11 June 2024 — Like in those movies where the main character is injured, rolls in the mud and then gets up to say “it was nothing, just a scratch,” the dollar has begun to recover in the Cuban informal market after a fall that has lasted just a couple of weeks. On the streets of the Island, the conviction is growing that the stumble has only been to gain momentum and that there will be no breaks on the rise of the US currency.

At the beginning of the month of May, the dollar, or the fula as it is popularly referred to, reached close to 400 Cuban pesos in the clandestine currency purchase and sale networks. That figure, in addition to being unprecedented, revealed the weakness of salaries on the Island, where a health professional, with a specialty under their belt, barely earns the equivalent of less than 50 dollars per month. Nor did a drop in the value of what is also called, ironically, “the enemy’s currency,” mean a moderation in the prices of basic products.

Those who receive dollars from abroad held their breath and their wallets to avoid selling their currencies on the days when ‘the green’ experienced a fall

Those who receive dollars from abroad held their breath and their wallets to avoid selling their currencies on the days when ‘the green’ experienced a fall. But those who live only on a salary in national currency could not enjoy the fact that the bill with the face of George Washington could be exchanged for less than 350 pesos. No private business, of those that have begun to spread across the Island and which mainly offer imported foods, lowered the prices of their merchandise. No collective taxi driver, fruit and vegetable merchant, or produce hauler took a centavo off their fares. continue reading

Why this paralysis in the face of the decline in the value of the dollar? The reason points to the skepticism surrounding the weak Cuban peso and the popular conviction that, in addition to the oscillations and any setbacks that the US currency suffers, it is money backed by elements that those banknotes with the images of José Martí, Antonio Maceo y Calixto García are almost completely missing. The dollar enjoys everything that national money lacks: trust among those who use it, productive support and international financial entities that support it.

Another reason for not getting carried away by the setback suffered by ‘the green’ was the suspicion that its slippage was being influenced by false advertisements for the sale of foreign currency, at a lower price, coming from the Cuban regime’s bot factory. On the streets of the Island, many considered that officialdom had used force to adulterate the result of the algorithm that, on the independent site El Toque, calculates the value of foreign currencies on the Cuban black market. That intuition was accompanied by the conviction that maintaining that pulse was almost impossible for the Plaza de la Revolución and that it would end up losing it, as has happened.

This week, the dollar has once again touched 400 Cuban pesos and the short- and medium-term forecast is that its comeback will continue without major obstacles along the way.

This week, the dollar has once again touched 400 Cuban pesos and the short- and medium-term forecast is that its comeback will continue without major obstacles along the way. One does not have to be an expert in finance or a university graduate in Economics to conclude that the national currency is mortally wounded.

The low productivity of industry, the agricultural sector and other networks that generate goods and services have dug the grave of the peso. The restrictions on withdrawing cash from banks, partly motivated by the economic crisis but also by an official desire to collect money in circulation to force the decline of currencies, has increased suspicion about the currency in which Cuban salaries are paid. Informal dollarization has spread and entrepreneurs prefer to understand each other in the language of currencies. The few Cubans who maintain savings have understood that it is better to keep greenbacks under the mattress.

The mass exodus that the Island has been experiencing for several years has also ended up crowning the “dollar emperor.” The demand in the informal market for this currency is motivated, to a large extent, by the need to pay for tickets to emigrate and to finance the costs of transportation through Central America to the southern border of the United States. The bills with the face of Camilo Cienfuegos or Ernesto Che Guevara have no place in the pockets of these migrants; the paper money they carry has the penetrating gaze and stately bearing of Abraham Lincoln printed on it.

Editor’s Note: This text was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish

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54,000 Laying Hens Are Slaughtered in Holguín, Cuba, Due to the Lack of Animal Feed

Egg production in Cuba has decreased from five million units a day in 2020 to 2.2 million in 2023

They slaughter them because, according to Avihol’s management, there is no food in Holguín,” a source linked to the company tells this newspaper/ Now/Archive

14ymedio, Miguel García, Havana, 10 June 2024 — At least 54,000 laying hens are being slaughtered in Holguín, a process that has begun due to the impossibility of keeping them due to the lack of animal feed. According to 14ymedio, the process started several weeks ago but had to be suspended when the production line of the slaughterhouse, located in San Rafael Adentro at kilometer 5 and a half on the road to Mayarí, broke down. However, the damaged parts have already been replaced and the plan has been resumed.

“They slaughter them because, according to the management of the Poultry Company of the province (Avihol), there is no food in Holguín,” said a source linked to the company who fears the situation will go further. “And if this is the case here, it may be the same in the rest of the country,” he speculates. The most serious thing, according to the same source, “is that there is no replacement, that is, they are slaughtering them without having spare hens.”

In just three years, Avihol has gotten into a catastrophic situation. The company not only surpassed egg production and supplied the province, but also served Santiago de Cuba and Las Tunas, earning the praise of former First Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura in February 2020. At the end of that same year, a report in the pro-government newspaper Ahora recalled that this was the second largest in the country, being part of the National Program for producing five kilograms of protein per capita, including poultry. At that time, it produced about 426,000 eggs a day and 152.6 million eggs in a year. continue reading

In just three years, Avihol has gotten into a catastrophic situation.

However, everything changed after the pandemic. In May 2023, Jorge Romero Marrero, director of the company, had to admit that the emergency required urgent measures. “The current financial situation does not allow us to acquire resources for the maintenance of the conditions that the sections require, and many units have deteriorated, which negatively impacts this line of production,” he said.

The manager said that the reduction in the feed had reduced the poultry population and decimated the hens, which in turn reduced the production of eggs. The price became completely unsustainable, which affected the workers’ wages. In fact, according to the source of this newspaper, the company was immersed in what the government jargon calls “availability process,” a euphemism to avoid the word “layoff,” only happening in its basic units, not in the headquarters.

Romero Marrero said that, despite the threat that was looming at that time on the company’s economy due to the low prices of eggs in the non-rationed market, there was a commitment to guarantee the rationed seven eggs per person and raise the price to the non-rationed commercialization carried out on weekends. In this case, the egg would be sold at 15 pesos, leaving the company’s profit at only 80 cents, but which would allow it, they believed, to sustain production.

Currently, the egg allowance on the ration book in the province has been reduced to five eggs per person per month.

The reality has been different and, currently, the number of eggs on the ration book in the province has been reduced to five eggs per person per month.

Chicken egg production, like so many other food sources, has plummeted in the country, which must resort to imports to meet demand. Just three days ago, the government press announced that Colombia would send about 40 million eggs to the island before the end of the year. As of today, 33 million units are still to come to comply with the agreement, since the first seven million arrived in Cuba in March. In May, the authorization was also granted for three companies from the Dominican Republic to export eggs to the island, in addition to other poultry products including meat and meat-based products.

Information about the pitiful state of the birds has multiplied in recent years and the causes are not only the price of animal feed. The lack of water and the blackouts, which interrupt the normal operation of the facilities thus harming the health of the hens, are also part of the problem. In November 2023, the Minister of Agriculture, Ydael Pérez Brito, reported that the production of eggs in Cuba has decreased from five million a day in 2020 to 2.2 million in 2023.

Translated by LAR

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Cuba’s Political Police Prevent the Departure of a ‘CubaNet’ Reporter Who Was Leaving for Nicaragua

Sardiñas was interrogated by the authorities at the airport / Facebook / Armando Sardiñas

14ymedio, Havana, 8 June 2024 — The Cuban Government prevented activist and independent reporter Armando Sardiñas from leaving the country when he was preparing to travel to Nicaragua this Thursday, according to what was reported on his social media the following day. Two State Security agents, who have been closely watching him for months, approached him at Terminal 3 of the José Martí International Airport, where they confiscated and destroyed his ticket. They also explained that he was “disqualified from traveling.”

“As he is a collaborator of an independent press that, according to State Security, responds to the interests of another country, he could not leave Cuba. Either as a tourist or to emigrate,” reads the activist’s Facebook post, in which he refers to himself in the third person.

As explained by CubaNet, the media outlet for which he collaborates, after a lieutenant colonel of State Security – whom he does not identify by name – arrested him at the airport, he was taken to a room where a brief interrogation took place that did not last more than 15 minutes.

During that time, the political police agents asked him if he “continued to do journalism” referring to his work at CubaNet, and asked him to “stop doing it” under the threat of imprisoning him again, because “they had something to accuse him with.” One of the agents called him a mercenary, continue reading

because he works for a press “paid by the empire,” according to the media.

In a conversation he had with his family moments after the incident, and from which his sister Jacqueline shared a screenshot, it can be read that the activist narrates the following: “It said on the computer (of the airport) that my exit from the country was disqualified, and then the two guanajos* (agents) arrived and told me ‘did you see that we do what we want?’”

The screenshot was accompanied by a text in which the 23-year-old’s sister laments that “beyond the pecuniary damage of 3,000 dollars (which we are going to claim) lost in a plane ticket impossible to cancel or modify an hour and a half before the departure of the flight, there is the clear and unpunished violation of the right to free movement.”

She added that the arrest of her brother and the restriction to leave Cuba occurred “without a valid argument, nor ongoing criminal proceedings, nor accusation, nor debts with the tax authorities.”

In October 2021, Sardiñas was sentenced to 10 months of correctional work with internment in the La Lima camp, located in the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa, for his participation in the anti-government protests of 11 July 2021 (11J).

“I do not lose hope, one day I will be free, I will be able to vent and get out all those feelings and anecdotes that I have been living since 11J and years before and after, the agony of living in a country under a dictatorship,” Sardiñas said through his social media after the incident was reported.

In recent months, this is not the first time that State Security has detained him. On April 14, agents arrested him while he was documenting the Dog Day march at the Colon Cemetery in Havana. On that occasion, he was held incommunicado and subjected to an interrogation that lasted seven hours. Another of his sisters, Yaima Sardiñas, was also summoned that same month.

*Translator’s note: “Guanajo” is used pejoratively to refer to someone foolish or stupid.

Translated by LAR

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Mexico Fills Positions for National Doctors With Cuban Specialists

A group of Cuban doctors in the state of Tlaxcala (Mexico)/@EmbaCuMex

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, 7 June 2024 — Cuban specialists are filling positions in Tamaulipas rejected by Mexican doctors because the work clinics are “far from the state capital,” said Marggid Rodríguez Avendaño, coordinator of the IMSS State Welfare. As the director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), Zoé Robledo, said last April, the salaries for these positions are 50,000 pesos ($2,732 per month), which includes a bonus of 10,000 pesos ($545).

A health source consulted by 14ymedio confirmed the hiring of 181 doctors and nurses in Tamaulipas. Among them “there are 27 Cubans who are registered as internists, ophthalmologists and surgeons,” the same source details, adding that 12 of them “are currently being trained in the state capital.”

The same official said that the island’s specialists “will be sent to hospitals located in San Fernando, Rio Bravo, Valle Hermoso and Victoria, where there are problems completing the medical staff.” He does not know if this group will be paid the $2,732 stipulated for those positions, considerably more than the$2,042 per month that Mexico pays the Government of Cuba for each specialist, according to information published by this newspaper, but he sees no impediment because “that money is already budgeted.” continue reading

Cuban doctors at a clinic in Manzanillo, in the state of Colima (Mexico) / Facebook/Manzanillo, Ciudad que Renace!

On the other hand, Rodríguez Avendaño indicated that they are in the “hiring stage” of doctors and nurses. In the state, 200 specialists and general practitioners have been granted jobs as part of the IMSS Bienestar, according to official data.

This Thursday, Andrés Manuel López Obrador´s administration granted more than 209,000,000 pesos ($11,397,277) to Tamaulipas as part of the La Clínica es Nuestra program. The money will benefit 400 health centers. Of these, 269 have a dispensary, 85 have two outpatient clinics, 20 have three to five rooms and 27 have six or more offices to care for insured patients and people without social security.

The hiring of Cuban doctors will continue during the government of newly elected Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. The agreement with the Island is to send 1,200 specialists, of whom 841 are already in the country. “We have signed an agreement with the Government of Cuba,”López Obrador confirmed last Tuesday. These doctors “are in the mountains, in Nayarit, in Campeche, in Colima, they are everywhere, and more are coming,” he said.

The most recent group of specialists from the island arrived at the Felipe Ángeles International Airport at the end of April.

Translated by LAR

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A Retired Restaurant Inspector Laments the Decline of Matanzas’ State-Owned Restaurants

Arístides admits that he can no longer afford to eat at these establishments since prices skyrocketed / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, June 1, 2024 — Since retiring, Arístides has gotten into the habit of going once or twice a month to have “a drink” or the occasional lunch at one of the local restaurants in Matanzas. However, it has been months since he has been to any of the state-owned businesses that he used to frequent. His return on Thursday to Casa del Chef left him perplexed. “Poor service, limited selection and a tasteless environment” is how he summarized his visit.

“I like going to that restaurant because the decor is nice and it feels cozy. But as soon as I got there, I saw four employees just sitting around a table, talking. Even though they were close, I had to try several times to get someone to wait to me. Since there was no one behind the counter and no headwaiter, the cook finally came over,” says Arístides, who worked as a restaurant inspector in the city for twenty-five years.

Arístides admits that he can no longer afford to eat at these establishments since prices have skyrocketed. Nevertheless, personal experience tells him that an increase in restaurant supply costs is not the only issue. “There is no point in restoring a place if customers are put off by supply shortages and indifferent staff,” he explains. continue reading

The cafe La Pelota offers two or three types of sandwiches and juice. / 14ymedio

Employee salaries, he argues, are a key factor that negatively impact workers’ performance and ultimately customer experience. “The current monthly salary tops out at 3,000 pesos. For workers it’s very discouraging to see that the price of a few dishes – between 80 and 160 pesos for sides and between 400 and 1,000 for a main course – is equivalent to their monthly salary.” He is referring to Casa del Chef, which has seen its staff turn over numerous times because employees left for jobs “at the privates.”

Put off by the poor service, Arístides heads for a nearby cafe. It is now 5:00 in the afternoon but the place is closed. “It would be preferable to rent out these establishments to individuals rather than go out of business because they’re empty or closed all the time,” he complains.

Arístides continues his journey until he arrives at Freedom Park, where he finds two places side-by-side: a cafe called La Pelota and a pizzeria. The first offers two or three types of sandwiches and juice. Though there are tables at which customers can sit, he is turned off by the bar’s greasy wooden countertop and a menu that offers more items than are actually available.

State-owned restaurants cannot compete with offerings at their private-sector counterparts. / 14ymedio

The pizzeria, with its door closed tight, is waiting on an “investment” it needs to reopen its doors.

“A few years ago, things weren’t too bad,” says Arístides. “But now you go to Coppelia and, instead of selling ice cream, they’re ’diversifying production.’ Bread and croquettes, or ten types of pizzas when they really only have two, and for a different price than what is shown on the board.”

When asked about the offerings at private restaurants, he says the “price barrier” has forced him to choose between the meager selections but lower prices at state-run places versus the better quality but higher prices at privately owned restaurants. In terms of what they can provide, state-owned restaurants cannot compete with their private-sector counterparts. That is why they will often illegally sell off their supplies to private business owners, balance their books and pocket the rest. “If that’s how they were going to run these businesses, better to have left them in the hands of their original owners,” he says.

Once-great old state-owned restaurants such as La Vigía, El Polinesio y El Bahía are, like their clientele, difficult to revive. It is not about inflation, the lack of equipment or the poor training provided by business and food service schools, claims Arístides. For him it all boils down to a truth so basic that every fast-food street vendor knows it: “There has to be a direct relationship between the price of what you’re selling and the quality, especially when you’re charging 1,200 pesos for a steak.”

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The Epidemiological Crisis of Oropouche Fever Worsens in Santiago de Cuba

The Ministry of Public Health has been cautious in offering the number of confirmed cases throughout the country

The accumulation of garbage and stagnant water is the environment conducive to mosquito infestation / Periodismo de Barrio

14ymedio, Havana, 9 June 2024 — Numerous complaints on social networks from Santiago de Cuba address the havoc caused by the Oropouche fever epidemic that the region is suffering. The reports speak of undiagnosed cases, outbreaks of mosquitoes in garbage dumps and stagnant water, and even the alleged death of a 22-year-old.

As a silent enemy, the virus is spreading not only through Santiago de Cuba, but also through Cienfuegos and more recently in Mayabeque and Havana, where cases have been reported in the municipalities of Diez de Octubre and Centro Habana, an expansion that the health authorities have not fully reported.

The presence of the fever in the Cuban capital, which was revealed by 14ymedio this Thursday, has not been confirmed by the Ministry of Public Health, which has also been cautious in offering the number of confirmed cases throughout the country, a complex record since most patients do not even go to hospital centers.

The situation seems to have reached such a level of severity that, last Thursday, the newspaper Sierra Maestra published a call to participate in “cleaning and sanitizing days” in Santiago territory. The justification for this mobilization is “the current epidemiological continue reading

situation, due to the increase in the rates of mosquito infestation,” says the appeal signed by the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

The newspaper maintained that the work of cleaning that the organization has called for “will allow us to take care of the health of all the inhabitants”

It also stressed that the days for cleaning extend “to all urban and rural communities, and work in all sectors is needed in order to achieve success.”

Meanwhile, social networks are a hotbed of commentary. This Saturday, independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta, a resident of the United States, reported on his Facebook profile the alleged death of a young man who spent three days hospitalized in a Santiago hospital because of Oropouche fever.

The information given by the reporter has not been confirmed by the authorities, but it has still caused a stir in the community of Santiago, where the residents of the region perceive an increase in infestation of the Culex mosquito, the main vector of Oropouche fever.

Only at the end of May did the Ministry of Public Health admit the presence on the Island of the viral disease, after numerous reports on social networks that warned of its incidence. The most severe symptoms of this fever include vomiting, headaches and joint pain, and in some cases, it can lead to death.

Several independent media have documented the growing concern in Santiago de Cuba about the cases of Oropouche and dengue. One of them is Cuba Alerts, which in a post this Friday on its Facebook page relates what was said by some parents in the area, who report that their children suffer from symptoms of the virus.

“It’s hard in the hospitals: the wards are full of patients, without medicine for the control of disease,” Magalis Cala told Cuba Alerts. She is one of the mothers debating whether or not to admit their children with symptoms of Oropouche fever to the North Children’s Hospital of the city, where she went after the symptoms worsened.

Meanwhile, Martí Noticias was able to talk to Father Leandro León Nun, parish priest of the San José Obrero Church, in Santiago de Cuba, who warns that the spread of the virus increasingly worries the population. They have decided to face it with natural remedies due to the lack of medicines, according to his testimony.

“Currently, with the people I can see, who are in my parish and who have been affected by the virus in the San Juan area, for example, or in the Seville area, people are now suffering from it. Generally, it is affecting a number of people, and just when you think that they have freed themselves from the virus, it returns, and they get weaker. Now my mom is in for the third time, it’s very bad,” complains Father Nun.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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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