Demanded Back by Mallorca, Antonio Maceo’s Chair is the Star of a Cuban Exhibition

The exhibition revolves around the chair but there are other objects, either used by the major general or otherwise connected to him. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Nelson García, Havana, 9 December 2023 – If the mayor of Palma de Mallorca wants to get Antonio Maceo’s chair back he’ll certainly know where to find it. The Captain Generals’ Palace in Old Havana has opened an exhibition of objects connected to this commander of the independence movement, which includes the trunk of a palm tree made into a chair. This piece of furniture, expropriated by one Valeriano Weyler after Maceo’s death, actually belongs to the local council of the Balearic island, which loaned it to Cuba in 2018 and is now demanding it back.

The expiry date of the loan – 16 November, which was extended on more than one occasion at the request of the late official Havana Historian Eusabio Leal – was the subject of a meeting between the mayor of Mallorca, Jaime Martínez, and Alejandro Castro Medina, the Cuban consul in Barcelona. The request to return the chair to Palma fell on deaf ears and Havana confirmed this with the Antonio Maceo exhibition – along with other campaigns and arguments – organised by the Historian’s Office and open to the public from 7 December for the anniversary of the leader’s death.

The back of the chair has carvings  of a star, the leader’s initials and the date the chair was made. (14ymedio)

The exhibition revolves around the chair but there are other objects, either used by the major general or otherwise connected to him, such as the well known oil painting, The Death of Maceo, by Armando Menocal, which depicts – but not without many historical inaccuracies – his fall at Punta Brava on 7 December 1896.

Another well known painting, by Aurelio Melero, of a besuited Maceo, also forms part of the exhibition, as well as a good luck charm relic – a piece of a shirt – “authenticated” by the ex president of Cuba, Salvador Cisneros Betancourt.

Behind glass screens one can also view the leader’s riding saddle, his German ’Fernando Esser’ machete – replicas of which the regime entrusts to dignitaries of the island – a Winchester rifle from 1873, a Smith & Wesson 44 calibre revolver, a watch, a wallet, a sword, shoes and other personal effects.

In September, when the Mallorcan Martínez met with the Cuban Castro Medina, this newspaper established that the chair wouldn’t be exhibited to the public, as the second floor of the Captain Generals’ Palace was under repair. The restructuring of the building has not been completed, but a small room on the ground floor has been air conditioned to house the object. continue reading

A Winchester rifle and a sword, both owned by Maceo. (14ymedio)

Maceo’s chair arrived in Cuba as part of Spanish president Pedro Sánchez’s luggage when he visited Havana in 2018. Eusabio Leal said at the time that the chair was of significant importance to Cuba. The Weyler family had donated it to the Palma de Mallorca council in 1931, and it remained on exhibition until negotiations for its loan to the island bore fruit.

The Spanish press gave assurance, before the polemic about the return of the object, that Havana was exhibiting it in “a special room”, as it was a “treasure of incalculable value for strengthening the revolutionary message which still prevails in the post-Castro era”.

The Historian’s Office itself gave assurances that it would quickly build a room for what Leal described, just a few days before he died, as “an important part of the soul of our country”. And in doing so, it sent – through the very mounting of the exhibition – a clear message to Madrid: the chair is staying in Cuba.

The Captain Generals’ Palace, where the exhibition is held. (14ymedio)

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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A Breakdown in the Felton Thermoelectric Plant Strains the Energy Situation in Cuba

The plant left service on November 20 to undergo scheduled maintenance. (Cubadebate)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 11, 2023 — The Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric plant of Felton, in Mayarí, managed to operate a little more than three days since it was last synchronized to the National Electroenergy System (SEN). The plant joined the system last Thursday, after a repair that lasted more than two weeks, but on Monday the Unión Eléctrica (UNE) reported that two units of the plant were stopped due to a breakdown.

On Monday, the UNE predicted an electrical impact of 300 megawatts (MW) in peak hours and announced that unit 1 of the Thermoelectric Power Plant (CTE) of Santa Cruz, in Mayabeque, and unit 3 of the CTE Renté, in Santiago de Cuba, were also out of service due to breakdowns. To these are added the exit, for maintenance, of unit 5 of the CTE Mariel, Artemisa, and unit 3 of the CTE Cienfuegos.

After a Sunday in which the UNE boasted that there would be no blackouts, a day that coincided with International Human Rights Day, the customers of the state monopoly received the news of the breakage of Lidio Ramón Pérez as an indication that there will be more power outages in the coming weeks. Criticism of the quality of maintenance work has been at the center of the complaints. continue reading

Yosbel Expósito Martin, annoyed, wrote on the company’s Facebook page that this “proves that the maintenance carried out by the UNE makes things worse; they have now disgraced the good work of the Felton 1.”  “We continue with the same story every week, the same torture,” added Rosa López, another angry netizen.

This proves that the maintenance carried out by the UNE makes things worse; they have now disgraced the good work of the Felton 1

The thermoelectric plant had gone out of service on November 20 to undergo scheduled maintenance that sought to return the plant’s capacity to produce 240 MW. The work included lowering the dome of the boiler, which weighs more than 127 tons and required foreign advice and special lifting equipment, according to the official press.

After more than two weeks, last Friday, on the thermoelectric plant’s Facebook account, the tone was optimistic: “After a very busy morning with a lot of professionalism and commitment, we are raising the load little by little,” said a brief message accompanied by a photo with smoke coming out of the Felton’s smokestack.

Eric Milanés Quinzán, general director of the industry, then confirmed to Radio Mayarí that after a gradual start-up process, the block 1 machine synchronized with the SEN 20 minutes before midnight [on Thursday], and since then, work has been done “on the adjustment of indicators and efficiency parameters to continue assimilating the load, progressively.”

Milanés explained that the maintenance included the startup and output transformers and the replacement of seven fragments of tubes, known as mochetas, inside the boiler. According to the manager, at this time it was not necessary to carry out work on the turbine.

But with the passing of the hours the information about the CTE was not updated again, and Cubans woke up this Monday with the news of its departure from service. The breakdown adds to the random history of damage and stoppage that the industry has suffered in recent years.

Last March, the Felton 1 synchronized with the SEN after spending 20 days in a scheduled maintenance, but only eight days later it left again due to another breakdown. At the end of the month, the plant was disconnected again due to a break in the boiler.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The United States Contributes $25,000 to Restore Hemingway’s House in Cuba

Interior of the Finca La Vigía where the American writer Ernest Hemingway lived for 20 years. (CC)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, December 11, 2023 — The United States approved a $25,000 fund to restore the former home of the American writer Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, the Finca Vigía Foundation reported on Monday, the entity that works with the authorities in Havana to preserve the current house-museum.

The money will also be allocated to the creation of a restoration center as well as to the maintenance and rescue of “thousands of documents, manuscripts, letters and photos along with a bookstore with 9,000 copies,” the agency adds in a statement.

For the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy on the Island, Benjamin Ziff, the fund approved by the U.S. Government highlights the historical and cultural value that the house represents for both Washington and Havana.

“Supporting Finca Vigía represents our commitment to preserving the incalculable history and shared cultural heritage that links the United States to Cuba,” Ziff said. continue reading

Supporting Finca Vigía represents our commitment to preserve the incalculable history and shared cultural heritage that links the United States with Cuba

For his part, Frank Phillips, co-president of the Finca Vigía Foundation, stressed that this fund is the first “financial support of the U.S. Government” and that, therefore, it is “incredibly significant.”

“Our hope is that the embassy’s support will inspire others to contribute,” Phillips added.

The Finca Vigía mansion, located about nine miles from Havana, was the residence of the American writer for more than 20 years and became the Ernest Hemingway Museum after his death on July 2, 1961, when he committed suicide with a shotgun in Idaho (USA).

Ernest Hemingway spent long periods between 1939 and until shortly before his death at Finca Vigía, where he even wrote part of some of his most famous novels, including The Old Man and the Sea, which was cited in his award of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

The museum preserves a collection of more than 20,000 personal objects and documents that belonged to the novelist, including books, hunting trophies, records, weapons, stationery, photos, a typewriter, where he used to write standing, and the yacht El Pilar, with which he went fishing and sailing in the Caribbean Sea.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Three New Murders Are Reported in Cuba Thanks to Social Networks

César Alejandro was killed while enjoying the Canchánchara Festival in Trinidad, held between December 8 and 10. (Daismany Palacio/ Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 11, 2023 — Social networks have once again highlighted the increase in violence in Cuba, which in recent days left at least three people dead: César Alejandro, Damián Reyes and Jadier Fuentes, in Sancti Spíritus, Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey, respectively.

The case of César Alejandro, 19, has been confirmed by Daismany Palacio, who presents himself as the victim’s uncle. In a post published on his Facebook profile, he claims that the crime occurred during the celebration of the Canchánchara Festival, in the Sancti Spíritus city of Trinidad.

Palacio, currently residing in Dallas, Texas, said in a live broadcast that his nephew was attacked by five young people, one of whom stabbed him in the stomach while the rest beat him.

“Right now my heart is broken into thousands of pieces. Two hours ago I just received the worst news in this world, that they killed my nephew, who was like a son to me,” said Palacio. He added that during the holidays, the police are focused on safeguarding the tourists, relegating Cubans to the background. continue reading

During the broadcast, Palacio expressed, in addition to his pain, the concern that the presence of alcohol in popular festivals helps fuel this type of event.

Right now my heart is shattered in thousands of pieces. Two hours ago I just received the worst news in this world, that they killed my nephew, who was like a son to me

Guillermo Ángel Soto del Valle, who claims to be a doctor at the General Hospital of Trinidad, commented in a post made on the Facebook group “Trinidad Remembers You” that César Alejandro died in the operating room and that it was impossible to save him.

In the case of Damián Reyes, the report was made on Instagram by user Niover Licea, who explained that the young man was murdered in the neighborhood of Portuondo, in the municipality of Santiago de Cuba, when he tried to mediate in a fight between a friend and the alleged aggressor.

According to ADN Cuba, Jadier Fuentes, 32, was recently murdered in the town of Indalla, in the municipality of Vertientes, Camaguey, allegedly by a man known as El Pinto, who killed him with a machete.

After decades of control by the Communist media, the independent press is announcing numerous cases of murders that now are known thanks to social networks. In addition, the population is also warning of an increase in violent crime. Last November, Bohemia magazine published a report, based on a “non-representative” digital survey conducted by the media, which indicated that 92.4% considered that violence has increased a lot, while 42% reported having been aware of 10 or more events of this nature in the last half year. Almost half said that an immediate family member or close person was a victim of crime.

The report also mentioned cases of sexist violence, although the data compiled by the authorities are far from the records of independent media and feminist platforms. According to the 14ymedio database, with the murder of Dorka Velázquez Casal, age 15, in the town of Aguacate, in Santiago de Cuba, this makes 79 feminicides in Cuba during this year.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Almost Always Villains

Caricature that ridicules the Spanish soldier Valeriano Weyler, architect of the Reconcentration. (Cubamemoria.com)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 4 December 2023 — Martí is good, Weyler is bad, Chibás is doubtful and a little hysterical. Cubans were always reckless; the Spanish, lazy; Americans, greedy. The independence movement was inevitable; annexationism, inadvisable; reformism, a symptom of laziness and lack of character. Céspedes is the father of the country; Mariana, the mother; Gómez, the grandfather; Martí the intellectual author; Batista, the mulatto stepfather; Che Guevara, the hippie, pot-smoking nephew; but Fidel… Fidel is everything, alpha and omega, Fidel is the San Antonio cape and the Punta de Maisí, the bearded caiman. Fidel is nothing more and nothing less than the sóngoro cosongo [poem by Nicolás Guillén], the tíbiri-tábara [album by the Cuban band, Sierra Maestro], the cornerstone.

From the ashes of Hatüey to the litanies of the Communist Party, the history of Cuba that remains in our heads is – to carry it well – Manichean and scholarly. It’s logical. A country almost always clumsy in its present will be forgetful of the past and blind to its future. I suppose that any citizen, if he is not a victim of a guilt complex, will take it for granted that his country is decent, that he has fought only just and inevitable wars and that he defends democratic values, culture, freedom and such. But in that the Cuban is bound to lose. continue reading

Those who commanded the Island were almost always villains, enjoyed an unusual talent for manipulating memory and messed with the intellectuals

Those who commanded the Island were almost always villains, enjoyed an unusual talent for manipulating memory and messed with the intellectuals until they said what suited them. If the writers paid a high price for their complicity – the current ruin and mediocrity of Cuban literature – historians must answer for something more serious: having destroyed Cuba’s past, the only thing that could give us a certain pride, a certain joy of being Cuban, despite the distance and disgust.

We lost the books, the tobacco fell to pieces, we were bitten by scorpions, everything went crazy. Instead of looking for history in A pie y descalzo [On Foot and Barefoot: Trinidad to Cuba 1870-71 (Memories of the Countryside) by Ramón M. Roa] or in Humboldt’s essays [Wilhelm von Humboldt, German philosopher and linguist who devised a system of education], in El libro de los peces [The Book of Fish, by William Gould] or El ingenio [The Sugarmill, by Manuel Moreno Fraginals], we return again to the primary school teacher, who forced us to remember, by means of chalk and blackboard, in which year of the Revolution we lived [Each year had a name; e.g., The Year of Education].

Even exile doesn’t save us, because the bad memory knows how to get a passport and cross the sea. Few Cuban publishers did what the Dutch Jew Johan Polak did; after escaping the Nazi extermination he founded a publishing house to save – in luxurious volumes, furthermore – classical literature. We share the exodus and misfortune of the Jews, but not their love of books. It is difficult to find a careful text by Julián del Casal, a facsimile of the engravings of the English invasion of Havana, the almost magical catalog of José Severino Boloña, the Novena to Saint Agustine or the brochure of 1722 that dethroned the Tariff of Prices and Medicines as the first printed matter of the Island.

But this is erudition, material for bibliophiles. What we urgently need is a book that lets Cubans – especially young people – know that Pepe Antonio was not a hero, but a local and undisciplined caudillo. A text that admits how much Cuba and Spain are owed – in both directions – that vaccinates us in advance against the idiocy of tearing down statues and demanding apologies. Let Varela be called a minister or parish priest, and not the aseptic “priest.” Let’s face the great millionaires of the colony, major conspirators; let’s talk about pirates and corsairs and intentional shipwrecks (the big business of the time).

Let the story of the Freemasons, the Jews, the santeros, the Oddfellows, the Rosicrucians and theosophists be told (Sarduy began in literature writing a poem inspired by Krishnamurti). Let them carefully analyze the Reconcentration, the year 1898, the Revolution of the 30th and Castroism (as metastases of a cancer that we have been carrying for decades). You have to edit Cuban libraries – inside or outside the country, it doesn’t matter – and write them down.

To tell a story is to lose it, says Piglia, but we only have the story we know

Only the Cuban exile today has the conditions to rebuild memory. Inside there is no desire, no money, no people. Without that past, you can’t assemble the pieces of a future country, free of communist dullness, with historians by profession who resume the business where Moreno Fraginals and Leví Marrero left it and ask what Oscar Zanetti or Rafael Acosta have been doing, and about the long list of National History Awards, which prides itself on having Raúl Castro among its ranks.

To tell a story is to lose it, says Piglia, but we only have the story we know. In Respiración artificial [Artificial Breathing, by Ricardo Piglia], the novelist dreams of the possibility of a man-museum. Someone, young or old, with a perfect memory of the country, of what it was and what it could be. A man who must be consulted, in the future, as the only and last witness of an era. Less optimistic, I don’t believe in Piglia’s dream. But yes, I do believe in libraries.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Cuba and Iran Agree on a ‘Resistance’ Strategy Against US Sanctions and Imperialism

“To deal with these sanctions we are going to increase the exchange of our capacity and potential,” Raisí said. (EFE)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Tehran, December 4, 2023 — Iran and Cuba agreed on Monday to strengthen their relations in all areas to face the sanctions of the United States, during an official visit of the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, to Tehran.

Díaz-Canel was received by the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisí, and both leaders met to work on a strategy of “an economy of resistance” to combat US imperialism and neutralize the sanctions suffered by the two “brother countries.”

The Americans believe that with the imposition of sanctions they can stop our countries or force us to surrender. This is not true

“The Americans believe that with the imposition of sanctions they can stop our countries or force us to surrender. This is not true,” Raisí said at a press conference with Díaz-Canel after the signing of seven agreements in various fields.

“To deal with these sanctions we are going to increase the exchange of our capacity and potential,” said Raisí, who described Díaz-Canel’s visit to Tehran as “a turning point” in relations between the two countries. The Iranian president stressed that the sanctions have not been successful and that Tehran and Havana have not renounced their principles. He asserted that their resistance is one of the main points in common between the two countries. “We two countries are against imperialism,” Raisí said. continue reading

Díaz-Canel, for his part, said that Tehran and Havana have conceived a strategy of “economy of resistance” in strategic areas such as energy, food, science, technology and health to face “the unjust sanctions with which imperialism attacks our peoples.”

“We have ratified the conviction that with this strategy we will deal a hard blow to imperialist aggression, sanctions and blockades,” said the Cuban president. Díaz-Canel arrived in Tehran last night, on the first visit of a Cuban president to Iran since 2001, accompanied by a large, high-level delegation. During his visit, the two countries have signed seven agreements and cooperation memorandums in the health, energy, agriculture, science, technology and communications sectors.

In addition, the Cuban president will visit the Pasteur Institute in Tehran, which collaborates with Cuba on medical projects, and will attend an exhibition of the “achievements of the latest technological capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The Cuban president will visit the Pasteur Institute in Tehran, which collaborates with Cuba on medical projects, and will attend an exhibition of the achievements of the latest technological capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran

The two leaders did not forget the conflict in the Gaza Strip and called for the creation of a coalition to support the Palestinian people in the face of the “ineffectiveness” of international organizations such as the UN and the Arab League, among others, to stop the war, in which at least 1,200 Israelis and more than 15,000 Palestinians have died.

“The honorable president of Cuba and I agree that a coalition must be created with the participation of allied countries to support the oppressed Palestinian people on different continents,” Raisí said.

Díaz-Canel, for his part, called for the urgent need of the international community to condemn the “genocide” committed against the Palestinian people, in addition to an immediate ceasefire and the creation of a Palestinian state.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Humanitarian Parole Is an Escape Route to the U.S. for ‘Sleeper’ Cuban Communist Party Members

From left to right, Misael Enamorado Dager and Yurquis Companioni. (Collage)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 8, 2023 — The theory is clear: the official guide of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, published in 2020, clarifies that it is inconceivable that members of a Communist Party – and Cuba has more than half a million of them – pronounce the U.S. Oath of Loyalty. The practice, however, is very different: not a few agents of the Havana regime have been admitted within the U.S. border, a country in which they live, work and vote.

This is the case of Misael Enamorado Dager, who served as the first secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba between 2001 and 2009, and who now resides in Houston, Texas, after entering the country with humanitarian parole, according to the influencer Niover Licea on social networks.

Interviewed by 14ymedio, a source close to the former leader confirms that he recently managed to move to the United States. “It’s been several years since he left the Party and was in a state research center until he retired, as did Lourdes, his wife,” he explains.

“They are there with their son, who had already been gone for a long time,” and he was the one who allegedly started the parole procedures, he adds. continue reading

Enamorado’s record on the Island leaves no doubt about his political affiliation. In 2011, during the VI Party Congress and two years after leaving office in Santiago, the former official was promoted to Secretary of the Communist Party, along with figures such as Esteban Lazo and José Ramón Machado Ventura.

However, in 2013 his political career plummeted. That year, during the restructuring carried out by Raúl Castro, Enamorado was “released from his status as a member of the Central Committee.”

Since then, his appearances in the public sphere decreased, until he fell into an oblivion that, as his exile suggests, he used to bypass Washington’s ideological controls.

During the restructuring carried out by Raúl Castro, Enamorado was “released from his status as a member of the Central Committee”

It was also reported this week by the independent press that Yurquis Companioni, a counterintelligence agent in Sancti Spíritus, managed to enter the United States through the southern border – after traveling the route from Nicaragua to Mexico – thanks to his sister, who already resided in that country and sponsored him for a six-year parole.

A source of this newspaper in that province confirmed Companioni’s identity and his relationship with State Security. “He seemed like a cool person, but he would sink you in a short time if you if you didn’t suit him. I haven’t seen him in a long time, so I’m not surprised that he’s in the United States,” he said.

According to the source, the former agent worked supervising the recruits in various facilities in the province. “Once he caught me asleep on duty and sent me to detention for 15 days,” he adds.

This type of story is common, he continues. “One day they’re here, taking any bribe that comes their way, and then they leave and appear in all the photos with American flags as if nothing had happened,” he says.

In fact, the cases of Enamorado and Companioni are not even remotely the only ones. A wave of former defenders, repressors and bureaucrats of the regime has arrived in the U.S. in recent years. Complaints on social networks every time any of these cases come to light revolve around the same idea: counterintelligence agents, sent or not by the regime, “have invaded” the Cuban community in exile.

The emigrants, increasingly concerned that the freedom they have achieved with effort could be transformed into a murky reality, firmly demand that the United States thoroughly review the background of those who enter the country.

An update of the inadmissibility policies of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service in 2020, during Donald Trump’s term made it clear – at least in writing – what had been done for decades with migrants: “Unless exempt otherwise, any possible immigrant who is or has been a member or affiliate of the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party (subdivision or affiliated with them), domestic or abroad, is inadmissible to the United States.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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An Advisor to the Large Spanish Hotels Asks Cuba To ‘Be More Open’ to Privatization

The Spanish hotel company Iberostar will be in charge of managing Tower K in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 7, 2023 — The Spanish advisor Francisco Albertí, who has been the financial guru for almost all the large hotel groups in Spain, this Thursday asked the Cuban authorities to allow the companies, “especially Meliá, to be great actors and advisors of the Cuban Government in the tourist recovery,” suggesting, even, that they could own some of the hotels they manage.

With experience working not only for Meliá, but also for the Mallorcan Iberostar and Riu – all with a history of hotel management on the Island – the expert does not make his proposal in vain. The business, he insinuates, would be good.

Even better, the hotel chains could help oxygenate with “private investment all the sectors that suffer: energy, supplies, food, agriculture and livestock,” which are “paralyzed” by the crisis on the Island.

To do this, he clarifies, the first step must be taken by the Cuban government, which will have to “open the country a little more” so that Spanish companies stop being simple managers and become owners of their hotels on the Island. continue reading

“Now is the time for Cuba to make important decisions at the tourist and country level” if it wants to “get back on its feet”

“Now is the time for Cuba to make important decisions at the tourist and country level” if it wants to “get back on its feet,” says Albertí. The tourism advisor also recalled the years in which he worked as an expansion director for the Riu chain, which in 2008 left the last of the three hotels that it once operated in Cuba. “Investing was not allowed for Spanish hoteliers, and the Riu family opted for another model,” he said.

The expansion plan launched later in countries such as Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica suggests that the hotel company stopped seeing Cuba as an enclave of interest and began to bet on nearby destinations.

“At that time they had hotels under management and for rent even in Spain. There was no more motivation so they left the Island,” Albertí reflects, insinuating perhaps that the same could happen with Meliá or Iberostar, which he described as “hoteliers who have supported the tourism industry” despite the fact that other destinations provide them with better results.

The intentions of both chains, however, seem to be directed at the moment in the opposite direction. This year Meliá inaugurated two luxury hotels in Varadero (Matanzas) and Sancti Spíritus. The latter, the Meliá Trinidad Península, has been the center of several controversies for its exclusive facilities that captured 60% of the province’s annual budget granted by the Ministry of Construction.

The hotel company also plans to inaugurate three other facilities in central areas of Havana: the Innside Habana Catedral, the Plaza de La Habana and the Seville

The hotel company also plans to inaugurate three other facilities in central areas of Havana – the Innside Habana Catedral, the Plaza de La Habana and the Seville – in addition to a fourth in Holguín, the Sol Turquesa Beach. At the end of the year, the chain will have 34 establishments throughout the island. Iberostar, lagging behind, is trying to reach thirty and will manage the Torre K hotel in the capital, currently under construction and without a name.

Likewise, last May, Gabriel Escarrer, vice president of Meliá, assured that despite the fall in tourism after the pandemic, he has no doubt that Cuba “will recover pre-crisis levels and will be in better condition than ever.” The director also said he had faith that the Island would reach the 3.5 million travelers predicted by the Cuban authorities, something that did not happen. On the contrary, at the end of November the figure did not reach even 2 million.

European tourism has been one of the most affected, which the Island’s authorities attribute to the war in Ukraine. The statistics of the sector, although better than in 2022, do not compare to the more than 4 million travelers who flew to Cuba in the years prior to COVID-19.

The Government, for its part, has tried to counteract the debacle by promoting Russian and Chinese tourism, but so far neither of the two alternatives has shown the results that Havana expected.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

France Arrests Two People for the Murder of Cuban Choral Director Reynier Silegas Ramirez

The body of Reynier Silegas Ramírez was found in his house. (Facebook/Reynier Silegas Ramírez)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 1, 2023 — Two people, aged 27 and 36, were arrested this Thursday in the Malengro neighborhood for the alleged murder of Reynier Silegas Ramírez. The Cuban choral conductor, 43, was found dead last Tuesday inside his home in Barrière de Paris (France). The body, according to local media, showed “signs of violence,” so the crime was handled as a homicide from the beginning.

The authorities located the 27-year-old suspect after tracking Silegas Ramírez’s cell phone. Investigations indicate that this person helped the murderer, a 36-year-old Brazilian, to hide the evidence of the homicide. So the young man is being prosecuted for “covering up a theft.” The Toulouse Prosecutor’s Office is requesting “preventive detention” of the other person arrested, who is accused of “murder and robbery.”

The authorities have two hypotheses about the murder. One of them alludes to “a violent sexual game that allegedly got out of control”; the second is based on a discussion of the Cuban choral director with the Brazilian he met through social networks. However, for now, the reason is still unclear. “There are still many gray areas to be clarified,” the Prosecutor’s office acknowledged. continue reading

The Cuban artist was well known in Alto Garona and in Gers for his musical activity

The public ministry allowed an autopsy and toxicological and pathological analyses to “verify the cause of the death of Reynier Silegas Ramírez,” published the French media La Dépêche. According to the first findings, the victim was “hit with a blunt object and showed signs of strangulation.”

It was specified that the lifeless body of the Cuban director was found by the emergency services “naked, with a telephone cable wrapped around his neck and covered by a sheet.” Choir members told the authorities that Silegas Ramírez missed the rehearsal in the department of Gers.

The same publication highlighted that the Cuban artist was well known in Alto Garona and in Gers for his musical activity. Since his death, the tributes have multiplied.

The president of the Eclats de Voix du Gers festival, Patrick de Chirée, defined Reynier Silagas as “an exceptional artist.”

Meanwhile, the French salsa and Latin music festival Tempo Latino announced “a cheerful, warm and musical tribute” that will be paid to him in the next edition of Tempo Latino. “In memory of your immense talent, your panoramic elegance of Sonero and your magnificent generosity towards everyone.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Books Arrive at Cuban Schools in the Middle of the Semester

In Nuevitas, Camagüey, the first and fourth grades of primary school now have the new materials. (Radio Nuevitas)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 7, 2023 — The so-called Third Improvement – an attempt to update the Cuban educational system and its institutions – did not reach the classrooms of Matanzas and Camagüey until this December, when the school year was about to finish its first semester. The new textbooks, which have been delivered to very few groups of students, come with suggestions of caution because they are more “sensitive” than the old ones.

An article published this Wednesday in the official newspaper Girón gave an account of the partial update of the “material base of study” and obliquely mentioned its deficiencies. At the moment, only the first and fourth grades of primary school, the seventh of middle school and the tenth of high school have received the books. The first grades of Technical Teaching and Pedagogy also obtained new books.

The municipality of Nuevitas in Camagüey is in a similar situation, where only the first and fourth grade students received the new materials this Monday. As for the seventh and tenth, the books are expected to be distributed shortly. For the rest of the grades, which will not receive the school supplies this year, there is still no clarity on the delivery date. continue reading

The Third Improvement, which was to provide a “more comprehensive and multifaceted approach” to education on the Island, has been news since at least 2017. However, it has not been until now, six years later, that the education system has begun the first reforms, requiring much patience.

The poor quality of the books – celebrated by the authorities and the official press – has been criticized by several local officials

The poor quality of the books – celebrated by the authorities and the official press – has been criticized by several local officials of the Ministry of Education. According to the provincial newspaper, Yainet Trejo, deputy director general of the sector in Matanzas, the material with which the books are made is less resistant to wear, and each volume has a greater number of pages than previous editions, which causes the binding to break more easily.

As they are the first of the new batch to arrive in the classrooms, the materials will also be monitored with zeal. “Among the measures adopted for their conservation is foliating (assigning them a number in the warehouse) to ensure control, and the books can be covered, but without spiral loop binding or gluing the pages,” Trejo explained.

At the beginning of September, several parents of students told this newspaper that the books would be ready in the first weeks of the course. The teachers told them that the students would temporarily concentrate on reviewing the contents of the previous year.

The late delivery of the texts, however, was not accompanied by an explanation from the Ministry of Education about what content was taught in the classes in the absence of the updated material or how the course will be consistent after a sudden change in the subjects that, according to the authorities, now favor “teaching content, the participation of families in helping with the exercises and the treatment of current topics.”

Days before the beginning of this school period, the disastrous conditions with which the Island intended to start the school year were already news. The delay in the production of uniforms, the delivery of fewer school supplies – erasers, pencils, notebooks – than in previous years and the inability of many parents to buy backpacks or get snacks for their children due to the high prices kept families in suspense.

The chronic shortage of teachers is perhaps the most pressing problem in Cuban classrooms. However, turning a deaf ear to its own crisis, the Island continues to sign education agreements around the world. With a track record in countries such as Angola and Honduras, this week the regime closed an agreement with Colombia to provide assistance in this field.

The memorandum, which had been negotiated in June, will be the starting point of the joint program Education in the First Place, and a Cuban delegation is expected to assist Colombia in the curriculum design, pedagogical follow-up and the “human rights approach in public education,” among other aspects.

The program signed by Havana and Bogotá will be in force until December 2024. The authorities did not clarify at any time whether, as was done with Honduras last January, the Island will send the “education professionals” who are so scarce in its own classrooms.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Almost 500,000 Migrants Have Crossed the Darien Jungle So Far This Year, Twice As Many as in All of 2022

Migrants cross the Turquesa River, in the Darién Jungle (Panama), in an archive photograph. (EFE/Bienvenido Velasco)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Bogota, December 1, 2023 — Almost 500,000 migrants have crossed the Darién Jungle region on the border between Colombia and Panama, one of the most used and dangerous routes in the journey of these people on their trip to the United States, Médicos Sin Fronteras (MSF) revealed this Thursday.

According to this organization, the number of migrants who have crossed the 60 miles of “wild nature on horseback” of the Darién Gap is about to exceed 500,000 so far in 2023, a figure much higher than that of 248,000 in all of 2022 and 133,000 in 2021.

“The number of migrants who have crossed the jungle is equivalent to more than 11% of Panama’s population. This is an unprecedented crisis to which not enough global or regional attention has been paid,” said the general coordinator of MSF for Colombia and Panama, Luis Eguiluz.

He added that “safe routes have not been guaranteed to migrants, nor sufficient resources for the organizations that serve them.” continue reading

According to MSF, in addition to the natural difficulties of crossing the jungle, migrants are also exposed to attacks, robberies, kidnappings and sexual violence; this organization has treated 397 survivors of sexual violence – 107 in October alone – including children.

We are crossing the jungle looking for a better future, not to die. A snake doesn’t end your life; it’s the men who rape and kill you 

“How do you survive five rapes?” asks a Venezuelan woman crying, who told MSF that she left her country for economic reasons.

“We are crossing the jungle looking for a better future, not to die. A snake doesn’t end your life; it’s the men who rape and kill you,” she added.

Ninety-five percent of the victims of sexual violence treated by MSF were women, and those who tried to defend them were attacked and even killed.

“What we have evidenced and heard from them is that those who transit through the Americas are exposed to a situation of extreme vulnerability: hunger, absence of shelter and water sources, excessive charges, disinformation and scams, xenophobia and physical, psychological and sexual violence,” Eguiluz said.

The torture of the migrants, according to Eguiluz, starts long before the migrants reach the Darién jungle, “even if it is there where it becomes evident.”

“From Peru I took a bus to Huaquillas (a city in Ecuador on the border with Peru). There some men took 10 migrants and stole all their money, and the women were undressed. They took the phones too and said that if we talked, they would kill us. They were carrying knives and guns,” says David Fuentes, a Colombian-Venezuelan migrant.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Since Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Cuba Pays Three Times More for a Ton of Grain

In the case of Sancti Spíritus, 28.4 tons of flour are needed daily to produce the standard bread, but only 24 tons are being received. (Escambray)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 6 December 2023 — The directors of the Sancti Spíritus Food Industry Company complained on Wednesday that what they call “the war between Russia and Ukraine” has triggered the price of wheat imported by Cuba. Each ton of flour costs the country 13 million pesos, they explained, three times more than what it used to pay before the invasion decreed by Vladimir Putin. In the province, the solution to save raw material has been drastic: reduce the size of the bread rolls.

Before the war, COVID-19 had already made the price of bread more expensive, causing a season of shortages on the tables from which the citizens have not been able to recover. A ton of wheat, which the country buys and processes in its mills because it’s cheaper than importing flour, is enough to satisfy 12 days of national production. In the case of Sancti Spíritus, 28.4 tons of flour are needed daily to produce standard bread, but only 24 are being received.

What the leaders themselves call a “small ball” (a roll) of rationed bread has had to be made smaller. The approximately 3.5 ounces that each bread roll weighed has now become 2 ounces. The good news, if there is one, is that the price has also dropped: it costs 25 centavos less, explained the director of the Food Industry in the province, Víctor Díaz Acosta. continue reading

Díaz Acosta also regretted that, since he subsidizes almost 50% of the production cost of standard bread – about 1.40 pesos – his company registers a loss of between three and four million pesos each month, partly compensated by the profits of the “released [unrationed] sale.” The leader admitted, during an interview with the newspaper Escambray, that he is no stranger to the second problem of bread, in addition to the shortage of wheat: its quality.

The debacle of bread production is so alarming in Cuba, that the official press itself has analyzed on several occasions the possible ways to solve it, without ever finding a satisfactory method

This is influenced by the baker, the technical state of the equipment, the quality of the raw material and the blackouts that interrupt the cooking process, which is basically done with electricity, he explained.

However, the provincial section of the Food Industry in Sancti Spíritus has no losses, Díaz Acosta said. It is saved by its alliance with the “new economic actors” (the private sector), which allows it to make other products: a baguette that is sold in state establishments at 75 pesos and dough for pizzas and breadsticks.

In that way, the leader explained, Sancti Spíritus saves the country 39 million pesos. It is the only entity of its kind in the country that can boast of a contribution of that caliber, despite the U.S. blockade and the thousand and one shortages that threaten the “socialist state company,” Díaz Acosta said.

The official also recognizes that, while state production hangs by a thread, the private sector continues to offer bread to their customers, against all odds; of course, at prohibitive prices for most people in the province. This situation does not bother Díaz Acosta, who pragmatically affirms that “it is better to have the availability than not.”

The debacle of bread production is so alarming in Cuba that the official press itself has analyzed on several occasions the possible ways to solve it, without ever finding a satisfactory method. Each new article becomes obsolete in a few weeks, because inflation does not take long to raise the price bar a little more. So much so that many Cubans can no longer afford goods like eggs or meat, which threaten to become luxury items.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Sancti Spíritus have become accustomed to the “original” solutions of the food industry company, which at the end of last year – in the midst of the umpteenth wheat crisis – had consented to bakeries using up to 20% of rice-husk residue to make bread. The end-of-the-year bread will not be as hard and sour as then, but nor will it serve to kill hunger.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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

Cuban Regime Publishes its List of ‘Terrorists’ with Activists and Exile Organizations

Cuban presenter Alex Otaola is among the 61 names on the Island regime’s National Terrorist List. (Instagram)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 7 December 2023 —  The politician Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, the journalist Ninoska Pérez, and the presenter Alex Otaola are some of the 61 names on the National Terrorist List published this Thursday by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior. The inventory also includes 19 organizations “that carry out actions against State security,” whose members, they warn, are “wanted by the authorities.”

In the extraordinary Official Gazette, number 83 of this year, Resolution 19 has been published, which begins by referring to the Security Council of the United Nations Organization in its regulations “relative to the prevention and confrontation of terrorism and its financing.” Under this section, Havana justifies the list of names that it accuses of “stimulating, financing and executing acts of sabotage” or “promoting, organizing and executing the carrying out of activities against the functioning of public institutions.”

Among those mentioned in the Resolution, activists such as Eliécer Ávila Cicilia, influencers in the style of Liudmila Santiesteban Cruz (Liu Santiesteban), Alain Lambert Sánchez (Paparazzi cubano) and Manuel Milanés Pizonero stand out. All of them were born on the Island and in recent years have become loudspeakers of complaints about the lack of rights on the Island and have frequently reported acts of corruption by government officials. continue reading

Among those mentioned in The Resolution highlights activists such as Eliécer Ávila Cicilia, ’influencers’ in the style of Liu Santiesteban, Paparazzi Cubano or Manuel Milanés Pizonero

Against them, the Gazette does not spare insults and accuses them of “destabilizing the social order in Cuba” and mixes, in the same document, causes that range from the attempted derailment of a train to the more indefinite “carrying out actions that affect the social order in Cuba.” The article also calls on the United States to “work together to prevent and suppress acts of terrorism, in particular by increasing its cooperation and fully complying with international conventions against terrorism.”

The list of Cuban exiles, the majority residing in the United States, is published just a week after Washington decided to keep Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism for another year. The list also includes organizations ranging from the Cuban American National Foundation through the Movimiento 30 de noviembre and the Asamblea de la Resistencia.

The Resolution came into force this Thursday after its publication and opens the question of how Havana will proceed with the new list. Unlike other lists of sanctions at the international level, the one reflected in this Official Gazette appears to be, so far, for internal use by Cuban courts.

The inclusion of Cuba among the countries that sponsor terrorism began in 1982 but the Island was taken off the lost in 2015, during the period of diplomatic thaw promoted by US President Barack Obama (2009-2017). In January 2021, Havana returned to the list in one of the last decisions made by the Administration of Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021) before leaving the White House.

Washington then justified the measure by alluding to the presence on the island of members of the Colombian guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN), who traveled to Havana to begin peace negotiations with the Government of Colombia.

The relationship between Cuban exiles, the majority of whom reside in the United States, is published just a week after Washington decided to keep Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism for another year

Two years later, at the beginning of this month the Administration of Democrat Joe Biden considered in a report that “the Cuban Government did not formally respond to the extradition requests” of ELN leaders Pablo Tejada and Pablo Beltrán, presented by Colombia.

He also denounced that “Cuba also continues to harbor several American fugitives from justice wanted on charges related to political violence, many of whom have resided in Cuba for decades.”

To designate a country as a sponsor of terrorism, US law requires the Secretary of State to determine that the government of that nation has repeatedly provided support to terrorist groups.

This designation supports a ban on arms sales with that country, greater control of its exports, restrictions on foreign aid, greater visa requirements and various economic sanctions.

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

‘Patria y Vida’ — Homeland and Life — Will Be the Motto of the Cuban Team That Will Be Formed by Exiled Baseball Players

Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman and his wife with the leaders of the Cuban Professional Baseball Federation. (X/@SwingCompleteBB)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, December 6, 2023 — “Patria y Vida” [Homeland and Life], the freedom motto that became the anthem of the 11 July 2021 ’11J’ protests inside and outside the Island, has been taken up by the Cuban Professional Baseball Federation (Fepcube) to identify the team of exiled baseball players that will participate in the Latin American Series in Barranquilla, which will be played between January 25 and February 1, 2004.

“It was necessary for everyone to know that we represent a free Cuba and that we carry in our name the spirit of Patria y Vida,” the president of the Federation, Armando Llanes, announced this Tuesday.

The slogan “Patria y Vida,” the title of the song performed by several emigrated and island singers, was also one of the most repeated cries during the mass demonstrations on July 11, 2021. The current president of Fepcube, Armando Llanes stressed that the motto “unifies” the feeling of freedom of Cubans, a reason for baseball players to wear it on their uniforms. continue reading

The launch event of the initiative, held in Miami, was attended by Yotuel Romero, who together with Beatriz Luengo, Descemer Bueno, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Maykel Castillo Osorbo, Alexander Delgado, Randy Malcom Martínez and DJ El Funky gave shape to the anthem that condensed the desires of Cubans for change.

“Homeland and life: what you have done by uniting the community under that call. People of all ages, not only those who follow your music, but the older people were also moved,” Llanes told Romero. “It has moved the world and made them (the Cuban regime) tremble. It is an honor for us to be associated with your brand,” he stressed.

The team that the official Cuban Baseball Federation called a “monster ” because it was made up of “enemies of the Revolution” has caused great excitement among fans. Orlando El Duque Hernández and Brayan Peña will be in charge of shaping a highly competitive team to face, during the Barranquilla tournament, teams from Colombia, Mexico, Curacao, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea.

“We have the necessary quality to build a team that plays with passion and dedication,” said Hernández, a team that, among the options, could have 175 emigrated Cuban baseball players, including several athletes from the US Major Leagues.

Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman was one of those who offered his support to the team of exiled players. “All of us Cubans who are outside of Cuba can now have a company that can represent us and help us,” he celebrated.

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

The Colleagues of the Pediatrician Murdered in Artemisa Lament the Silence of the Cuban Authorities

Padrón worked at the Comandante Pinares hospital, in San Cristóbal. (Facebook/Efrén Padrón)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 6 December 6, 2023 — The name of Efrén Padrón, a pediatrician murdered in his home in San Cristóbal, in Artemisa, is the most recent on the list of violent deaths that Cuban authorities rarely report on. A nebula of data surrounds the case. Depending on the source consulted and in the absence of an official version, two causes of death are indicated: asphyxiation or stabbing.

The crime scene, his house, is the only common factor in all versions of the murder. Padrón, who had recently arrived back on the island after being part of a medical mission abroad, was allegedly attacked by a young man who fled and was captured by the Police this Wednesday in Pinar del Río, according to the influencer Niover Licea. Despite sharing the same last name, the aggressor and the victim were not related.

The versions also agree that the attacker went to the doctor’s house to rob him, but ended up suffocating Padrón with a telephone cable and throwing him into a tank, to simulate a suicide. Others claim that, on the contrary, the pediatrician was stabbed. Neither the Police nor the hospital where Padrón, Commander Pinares, worked and taught, in San Cristóbal, have issued any statement regarding his death. continue reading

The versions agree that the attacker went to the doctor’s house to rob him

However, several of his colleagues at the hospital lamented his murder and published on their social media profiles the little they knew about the case. This was also done by the independent journalist Claudia Padrón Cueto, who claims to have communicated with the victim through social networks.

Other health workers, also hospital workers and those close to Padrón, commented that the “excellent pediatrician” had completed missions in countries such as Angola and Cape Verde.

The escalation of violence in Artemisa has already made headlines in the independent press. In November, this newspaper reported on the imposition of a curfew in Alquízar, where the proliferation of crimes keeps the residents of the municipality in suspense.

Contrary to the official version, which flatly denied the restriction of movement, several residents assured 14ymedio that the agents patrol the avenues and prevent citizens from leaving their homes after midnight. One of them even explained how his father, a farmer who usually returns late from the fields, ended up detained at the station for not following the rules.

Beyond the provincial borders, the situation is no different, and in large cities like the capital, news of armed robberies, assaults and violence in the streets are more frequent, although they are only reported by social networks and independent media.

In the early hours of last Thursday, a man in his 60s and of French nationality was murdered in a building on the corner of Industria and Virtudes, in Central Havana. According to what one of the building’s neighbors told this newspaper, the victim had gone up to a tourist rental apartment with two girls, who gagged and suffocated him with the alleged intention of robbing him.

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