Translating Cuba

Mirta Díaz-Balart, Fidel Castro’s First Wife, Dies at 95

Mirta Díaz-Balart lived in Madrid and was the mother of “Fidelito” who committed suicide in 2018

From left to right: Mirta, Raúl Castro, Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart, his wife, his grandson and his son Fidel Castro Smirnov / Fidel Antonio Castro Smirnov

14ymedio, Havana, July 6, 2024— Mirta Díaz-Balart, ex-wife of Fidel Castro and mother of their first child, died on Saturday in Madrid at the age of 95. Her grandson, Fidel Alejandro Castro Smirnov, a scientist with ties to the regime and resident of Cuba, announced her death on his X account. Castro Smirnov described his grandmother as “great woman” who retained a certain loyalty to her country and had an “extraordinary story.”

Born in Havana in 1928 and divorced from Castro in 1955, Díaz-Balart was a member of one of the most prominent families in pre-Castro Cuba. She studied philosophy and literature at the University of Havana where she met Castro, who was studying law. They honeymooned in Miami and New York in 1948. A year later their son Fidelito was born. He suffered from severe depression and committed suicide in 2018 in circumstances that remain murky.

The Díaz-Balart family was, and still is, deeply involved in politics. Mirta’s father, Rafael José Díaz-Balart, was mayor of Banes, a town in Holguín province where Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was born. His brother Rafael was a member of the Cuban legislature from 1952 till 1956 and served in the Cuban government. He was opposed to Castro’s failed assault on the Moncada barracks and came to regret the amnesty the Batista government granted Castro and his comrades. Mirta’s nephews Mario and Lincoln have both served as Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives. continue reading

As his wife, Mirta was one of the few people allowed to visit Castro in prison. They separated, she said, not only because of his revolutionary activities but also because of his affair with the celebrated Naty Revuelta, who was also married at the time. Together, he and Revuelta had a daughter, Alina Fernández.

Castro and Mirta separated not only because of his revolutionary activities but also because of his affair with the celebrated Naty Revuelta

After her divorce, Díaz-Balart traveled to Mexico to gain custody of Fidelito, who was living with his father in exile. He did not see his father again until 1959. Mirta remarried in 1956, this time to Emilio Núñez Portuondo, son of a former Cuban ambassador, with whom she had several children. She moved to Spain with her new family after Castro came to power but was forced to leave her son behind in Cuba.

One of the daughters from her second marriage, Mirta Núñez Díaz-Balart, holds the Chair of Historical Memory at the Complutense University of Madrid. She has said in interviews that, on several occasions, she has had to clarify that she is neither a daughter nor stepdaughter of Fidel Castro. She is a historian who has written critically of the regime of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and was in charge of drawing up a list of controversial street names from the Franco era with the aim of changing them.

In one of those interviews, Núñez Díaz-Balart said her mother was living on Alonso Cano Street in Madrid and that her father had been fervently anti-Castro. During a trip to Cuba in 2006, she said she received a phone call from her half-brother Fidelito, who informed her of a delicate operation that the Cuban dictator would undergo that year, whose outcome would have been fatal without the intervention of a surgeon from the the Madrid Health Services.

“I have been back to Havana several times to be with my son but I have never gone back to see or talk with Fidel”

Mirta Díaz-Balart herself was interviewed by the Spanish daily “El Mundo” after Castro’s death in 2016. “I have been back to Havana several times to be with my son but I have never gone back to see or talk with Fidel,” she said at the time. She told the interviewer that she prayed for the repose of his soul but that she thought of her marriage to him as “something long ago,” as something from her “youth.”

Largely forgotten after being fired from official positions by his father and his subsequent suicide, the name of Fidel Ángel Castro Díaz-Balart and that of his mother are taboo in Cuban state media. His grandson, Fidel Alfonso Castro Smirnov, a professor of nuclear physics in Havana, has taken it upon himself to reframe his family’s history, steadfastly claiming on his X account that both his father and grandmother remained loyal to Fidel Castro.

For example, he often posts family photos featuring both Fidelito and Mirta with Raúl Castro but never with Fidel. It is said that it was Raúl who organized Mirta’s visits to the island and facilitated Mirta’s sporadic meetings with the Cuban strongman. In family photographs posted by Castro Smirnov, it is Raúl — not his absent brother — who plays the role of paterfamilias.

Castro Smirnov often posts family photos featuring both Fidelito and Mirta with Raul Castro but never with Fidel

Castro’s “ill-fated heir” was buried in a mausoleum belonging to the Cuban Academy of Sciences, in a tomb of dark granite that is the color of red wine, as this publication recently reported.

Castro Smirnov takes the intersection of his family history and the legacy of Fidel Castro to convulsive extremes. He praises his grandfather Fidel’s physical survival, his strength (stronger than nuclear arms), his dynamism, his coolness, his light (the most beautiful and intense), his movement, his magnetism. . . all this, according to the young scientist, will endure after his death because, as he writes, “physics is everything.”

On Saturday, he posted a similar message — “death is not her end” — dedicated to his grandmother, Mirta Díaz-Balart.

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Another Attempt To Remove the Statues of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in Mexico City Fails

A deputy has called for the removal of the monument to “the murderers” located in a central park

The sculptures were placed in 2017 to commemorate the meeting of the two celebrities 69 years ago / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Adyr Corral, Mexico City, 6 July 2024 — In Tabacalera park in Mexico City, very few people have heard about the call that Deputy América Rangel made this Thursday on social networks to remove the sculptures of Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara. Rangel, who belongs to the conservative National Action Party, sought to emulate the no less picturesque controversy generated by the call that neighbors of a beach in Progreso, Yucatan, have made to remove a sculpture of the Greek god Poseidon, because its presence on the boardwalk of the city has infuriated the Mayan god Chaac.

“Now that in Yucatan they are organizing to remove the statue of Poseidon, here in Mexico City we must do the same to remove the statues of the murderers Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Who is in?” the capital deputy published on her X account.

But Rangel’s harangue, which was fueled by some of her followers, did not have the desired effect outside the social media bubble, and no one arrived with chains and a truck to remove the life-size bronze sculptures, which some of those who celebrated the idea had suggested in the comments.

There have been no strange movements in the park, which is hidden behind the National Museum of San Carlos, where time passes at a less dizzying pace than in the rest of Mexico City. Located in what was once the garden of the Palacio del Conde de Buenavista, it is now located in one of the red zones of the metropolis where trans prostitutes negotiate the price of their services and drugs are for sale, especially cocaine and poor quality meth. continue reading

“There are many people in a vulnerable situation, also a lot of drug sales”

“There are usually many people in a vulnerable situation, also a lot of drug sales, people who come here to get high. The atmosphere has deteriorated for a long time,” said a museum security guard, whose main task is to guard an entrance that leads directly to the park and the two bronze-cast figures sitting on a bench, as if they were any couple.

“For me it’s an aberration to have these statues here,” says a neighbor who walks his dog. “We have countless national heroes, why are we going to have these individuals, if Castro was a dictator?” asks Roberto Domínguez Ortiz, an 84-year-old man who has lived across from the park for more than 40 years.

Dozens of homeless people spend the night in the park after spending their day asking motorists for money in exchange for cleaning their windshields at traffic lights or collecting cardboard and plastic bottles, in exchange for which some coins can be earned in recycling centers.

Juan is one of them. After listening attentively to his eighty-year-old neighbor, he approaches and questions why they put Castro and Guevara in that place. “Shouldn’t they be somewhere else? In Cuba, for example?” He says that the bench where Fidel and Che are smoking a cigar and a pipe, respectively, once broke, because a tree fell on it.”

Castro and Guevara are looking towards an immense fountain – now without water – that has become a bathtub and laundry room for the park’s tenants. Juan, who is not more than 30 years old and sports a scruffy beard along with some tattoos on his right arm, says sarcastically that Fidel and Che often serve as a clothesline to dry the clothes newly washed in the fountain.

Fidel and Che have become the clotheslines for homeless people / Crónicas al hilo / X

Castro and Guevara were placed in this park because it is located a few blocks from the building where they met while they lived in Mexico. On the facade of the building where the meeting took place, a plaque reads: “This place of the Cuauhtémoc (neighborhood of the city) was where, in July 1955, the first meeting between Fidel Castro Ruz and Ernesto Guevara de la Serna took place. In honor of the role that both personalities have had in the revolutionary struggle of Latin America.”

The building is a three-story building located at 49 José de Emparán Street. It remains inhabited but in deplorable condition, without glass in the windows, which have cardboard and wood so as not to let in the cold and prevent the curious from looking in. If you look at the facade, it is easy to detect several visible cracks in the red paint, probably the result of the constant earthquakes that shake the Mexican capital.

The apartment building where both met in 1955 / 14ymedio

Senator Ricardo Monreal, a staunch supporter of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador — who installed the sculptures in 2017 — said when he was mayor of Cuauhtémoc, “Many may not agree with Fidel or Che but this community is tolerant.” In September 2021, the sculpture was vandalized by demonstrators, who threw white paint at it, damaging the copper patina. The protest was directed against the Government of López Obrador, days after he received Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. At that time it was also suggested that the figures be removed, but the initiative failed.

The white paint was removed and the patina restored, but recently someone wrote a message with a black pen in the notebook that Castro is holding: “Whoever finds the thief and returns what was stolen will be rewarded.”

Not only was white paint thrown at them but propaganda was also placed against López Obrador on the statues / Manuel Amador/X

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Police Harass Journalist José Luis Tan Estrada a Few Days Before the Anniversary of July 11

The reporter was threatened with charges of disobedience and contempt if he publishes content about the protests on social networks

The reporter is prohibited from attending public places under the threat of going to prison for disobedience and contempt. / José Raúl Gallego/X

14ymedio, Havana, 6 July 2024 — State Security released journalist José Luis Tan Estrada this Friday after a brief interrogation where they warned him that on July 11, when three years of the 11J protests are commemorated, he must refrain from making any publication on his social networks. The reporter is also prohibited from attending public places under the threat of being imprisoned for disobedience and contempt.

The CubaNet collaborator reported on his Facebook page that on Friday afternoon, while connecting to the internet in the Agramonte park in the city of Camagüey, he was approached by a political police officer who arbitrarily arrested him. Tan Estrada was transferred in a patrol car to the Third Unit of Monte Carlos of the National Revolutionary Police, where he was intimidated.

In his publication he said that a repressor, whom he identified as Laura, stopped him while he was connecting to the internet. After approaching him in the park, she took his cell phone and immobilized his hand, warning him that if he shouted he would go to jail. After remaining in that position for a few minutes, a patrol car approached and he was arrested. Once they reached the Police unit, an interrogation began, joined by another agent, identified as Marcelo. continue reading

“They gave me a letter of warning, which I did not sign, and, in addition, they said that if I did not comply with it, I would be prosecuted for disobedience and contempt”

“They gave me a letter of warning, which I did not sign and, in addition, they said that if I did not comply with it, I would be prosecuted for disobedience and contempt. I told them, and I say it here again, that I will continue doing independent journalism and will not turn my face to injustices,” he said a few hours after being released.

“The main objective was to threaten me and warn me that on July 11, I cannot be in public places, or in parks, post anything or take any action to incite people, because I, according to the repressors, am a negative leader in the province, and it was better for me to stay at home,” he said. He also thanked journalist José Raúl Gallego, a resident of Mexico, because they were having a conversation at the moment they took his cell phone away, so it was possible to give news of his arrest to his family and friends.

The journalist has been harassed by the political police in recent years. In April, he was arrested in Havana and later released, after spending five days at the headquarters of State Security, Villa Marista. During that time the agents urged him to leave the country, and, according to his account of the facts, he was the victim of psychological torture: “They can do anything in there. One, who I think was a captain, told me, ’you’re going to rot here, worm’,” Tan Estrada revealed after being released.

This Friday, after Tan Estrada left the police unit, the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press (ICLEP) condemned his arrest, which it described as “a new attempt at silence and repression among voices critical of the Cuban regime.” The organization also demanded respect for the diversity and freedom of expression because, it said in a statement on its networks, “thinking and giving a different opinion are not crimes.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Without Visas To Travel on Wingo Airlines Protest at the Colombian Embassy in Havana

Beginning July 8, residents of the Island will need a visitor visa to travel on the airline to Bogotá

Protests in the Havana airport (left) and at the Colombian Embassy (right) / Collage / Roberto Fdez Cruz / Mario Pentón

14ymedio, Havana, 6 July 2024 — The controversy between the Colombian airline Wingo and its Cuban users has escalated in recent days after the company announced that from July 8 it will only transport travelers with a visitor visa, that is, whose final destination is Bogotá. Many of its customers on the Island have begun to protest the measure, which prohibits travel to those who were only thinking of transiting in the Colombian capital, and this Friday the demands reached the Colombian Embassy in Havana.

According to the statement published by Wingo on its official website, the request for Cuban travelers to present a visitor visa and their return ticket to the Island – purchased from the company itself – is going into effect based on another announcement made by the Colombian Foreign Ministry on July 4. According to the official document, “in order for a passenger to be considered in transit at Colombian airports, the same air transport contract must include both the journeys of arrival in the national territory and those of departure to the third country.”

In summary, the Government of Colombia requires the transit to be included in the same flight contract; that is, that it be done with the same company.

For its part, Wingo only operates a “point-to-point” flight between Havana and Bogotá, so it cannot check the transit status or be responsible for its travelers when they move to another airline. “It is important to reaffirm that Wingo’s network of routes only offers direct flights, in this case Havana – Bogotá, and does not offer connecting flights, either within its continue reading

own network, or with other airlines. That said, the airline is not able to verify the validity of connections with other airlines beyond Bogotá,” it explains.

“After communicating this decision, the airline will only transport passengers of Cuban nationality who have a visa to enter Colombia, without exception. This measure will be in effect from July 8, 2024,” adds the company, which offers customers who do not meet the requirements two options: request a free change of the flight date (the ticket will remain good until March 2025) or request a refund – although the airline does not clarify if they will refund the total cost of the ticket.

In either case, the tickets must have been purchased before July 8 of this year.

Cubans, for their part, have not taken the announcement well, and last Monday several customers protested in front of Wingo’s office at José Martí International Airport. Through videos and publications shared on networks, many of the customers said that they had been forced to leave the airport by the Island’s authorities without obtaining explanations from Wingo. Hours later, the company published its statement clarifying that “it is not asking for a transit visa” as many confused users claimed, but that it was adhering to the regulations issued by the Foreign Ministry of that country.

This Friday, the protest was held in front of the Colombian diplomatic headquarters in Havana, where citizens demanded an explanation from officials and that they allow travel for those who had already purchased a ticket. According to other publications on social networks, the ambassador told the group that two weeks ago he filed lawsuits against Wingo and that the airline is analyzing the matter.

Travelers, however, have not been satisfied, and many have expressed the sacrifices they made to pay for the ticket

Travelers, however, have not been satisfied, and many have expressed the sacrifices they made to pay for the ticket, including the sale of houses and belongings, since their objective was to emigrate. The meeting with the diplomat also did not leave them convinced and, as many have declared on social networks: “Everything smells like lies,” and Wingo is not giving concrete answers to demands for reimbursement and to allow travel.

Cubans are running out of ways to reach Colombia, one of the favorite stopovers on the way to Nicaragua, where they embark on the route to the United States. These obstacles are the result of the pressure exerted by Washington on airlines for their complicity, active or passive, with the transport networks for illegal migrants. Several airlines have preferred to suspend their flights in the face of the threat of sanctions from the United States.

At the beginning of June, the Colombian airline Avianca reported that, “due to operational issues,” it will postpone until further notice the restart of flights on the route between Bogotá and Havana, which it had promised since May, without giving further details.

Avianca will reimburse all customers who had already purchased tickets to travel between those destinations since the announcement of the resumption of operations, the company said at the time. The airline’s planes have not traveled to Cuba for four years and, at the moment, it is not clear when they will be able to again.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Murdered by Her Ex-partner in Line at the Pharmacy in Las Tunas, Katia Ortiz Was Pregnant

Another confirmed case of femicide occurred in Havana on May 18

“Violence leaves marks — Ignoring them leaves femicides.” March against violence against women and femicides. / (YoSíTeCreo en Cuba Facebook)

14ymedio, Madrid, June 13, 2024 — The Yo Sí Te Creo in Cuba observatory added two new femicides in Cuba on Wednesday. One of them is that of Katia Ortiz Figueredo, 25, on June 5. The attack occurred in the street, in the city of Las Tunas, allegedly at the hands of her ex-partner, who already had a history of violence, as reported by her. The victim had two minor children, according to the platform.

An uncle of the victim told Cuban journalist Alberto Arego that the murder took place at the door of the pharmacy located on 11th Street in the Aguilera neighborhood, where her ex-husband – who was standing in line with several people to buy medicine – stabbed her several times. “They had been divorced for a few months but he, under threats, had held her for five days in his house and sexually abused her, leaving her pregnant, according to the autopsy report, and leaving two children, a boy 8-years-old and a 3-years-old girl,” revealed the man.

Asked if the family was aware of the situation, the victim’s uncle said that his niece was very afraid and did not want to “expose” the family to possible reprisals, so no complaint was filed, although he is now raising his voice so that the aggressor, who is in custody, is convicted of double murder since she was pregnant. continue reading

The victim’s uncle said that his niece was very afraid and did not want to “expose” the family to possible reprisals, so no complaint was filed

The other case dates back to May 18, the day Cindy Samanthy González Espinosa, age 32 and originally from Camagüey, tried to hide in the house of a friend of her ex-partner, who followed her there to kill her. The alleged murderer also had a history of mistreatment against the victim and previous partners, “without this leading to preventive measures,” laments Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba. These events occurred in Barrio Obrero, a neigborhood of San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana.

The Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba observatories, both based in Cuba, count these deaths as femicides, which number 25 so far this year. (The count carried out by 14ymedio rises to 22, since it does not include the murders of two elderly women last March or that of Aniuska Hernández Ginard on June 5, which this newspaper does not consider to be in the nature of a femicide).

The organizations have six cases in their accounts that require further investigation to determine whether they are murders due to gender-based violence, three of them in Havana, two in Santiago de Cuba and one in Esperanza, Villa Clara. In addition, there are three attempted murders and four violent acts (in Havana, Artemisa, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba) about which they are trying to gather more information.

In March 2021, the Cuban government announced the creation of a Gender Observatory, which was expected to include updated records of femicides and “other expressions of sexist violence.” At that time, the general secretary of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), Teresa Amarelle, stated that they were studying how to do it, but that the organization would contribute to “demonstrating the reality of the country” regarding gender violence.

It took two more years for the Cuban Observatory on Gender Equality to be launched in June 2023, which included statistics on “judicial proceedings resolved in the country’s courts in 2022” linked to gender-based murders. The data reported cases tried that year, without further details and without knowing the date of the commission of the crime, leaving this record far below that kept by feminist associations since 2019 and, therefore, useless.

Months later, in December, the Attorney General’s Office announced that it would be in charge of carrying out an “administrative registry” to collect real-time information on the deaths of women and girls due to gender-based violence. Half a year has passed without any further news of this registry and, in addition, the statistics on femicides from the Observatory created in June, which is now mainly dedicated to data on the gender gap, have also disappeared.

Half a year has passed without any further news of this record and, in addition, the statistics on femicides from the Observatory created in June have also disappeared

“The times when women go to the police and the police even make fun of them…” lamented one commentator in Arego’s post about the murder of Katia Ortiz. Another commentator agreed with her: “Every time I read a news story like this I feel angry, because we women are unprotected. There is no justice for us in this country. As I read in a comment before, many go to the police seeking protection and the response of those who are supposed to be in charge and in authority is to make fun of them, they even say it (‘she’s crazy’) and they don’t even ask to find out what’s happening to her.”

Feminist associations have been calling for years for a comprehensive law against gender violence that goes beyond criminal content and encompasses prevention, through the involvement of all sectors of society, from the security forces themselves to judges and health workers, as well as education and communication. The Government postponed such a law until at least 2026 in a timetable published in 2021.

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Never a Time of Peace for the Cuban Economy

The revolution is not in crisis. The revolution itself is a perennial crisis and a chronic illness.

Photo of the most recent Council of Ministers meeting where measures to deal with a “war economy” were proposed / Granma

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, July 2, 2024 — Fidel Castro did not want to call the great Cuban debacle of the 1990s a crisis. He preferred the euphemism “Special Period.” He used the term twenty times during his speech on September 28, 1990 along with the tagline “in times of peace.” He made his audience’s heads spin with talk pf sweet potatoes and cassava that had been harvested nine months late yet had not dried out. When one looks back at his speeches dispassionately, one wonders how our parents came to believe in the commandante’s “consummate genius.” Clearly, his genius was in direct proportion to our stupidity.

The Royal Spanish Academy dictionary has two definitions for the word “crisis.” The first refers to “a profound change with important consequences in a process or a situation, or in the manner in which they are observed.” The second meaning indicates the “sudden intensification of a disease’s symptoms.” When we talk about the Cuban economy, the latter seems to better align with our own experience. The revolution is not in crisis. The revolution itself is a perennial crisis and a chronic illness.

In April 2019 Raúl Castro was frightening everyone with the prospect of a return to the Special Period. The measures he announced at the time now seem like a precursor to to every package of new legislation that has followed. continue reading

All the government’s fanfare masks preparations for the crisis Venezuela will experience following presidential elections on July 28

The specter of the Special Period arouses so much public anxiety that party ideologues advised Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel to avoid mentioning it. Like crossword creators, they have been puzzling out different ways to describe the crisis. In September 2019, the anointed president began talking about a situation that was “simply energetic,” describing it as “temporary.” Faced with a barrage of criticism over this, he casually mentioned a few days later that the situation could be permanent.

As the Mexican singer/songwriter Juan Gabriel would say, that’s how it goes. Currency unification and the Covid pandemic combined to expose the ineptitude and haplessness of the Castros’ heir, though, this time, widespread frustration led to the biggest public protest in our country’s history on 11 July 2019. They say that Díaz-Canel, once a fan of Communist-sponsored neighborhood street parties, now can’t stand listening to Julio Iglesias.

The crisis has gone from being a “contingency” to something worthy of a Hollywood premier: an “economy at war!” At this point, one imagines Soviet T-55 tanks transporting ration baskets and the regime’s last ten fighter planes firing rounds of grocery store bread.

If this crisis is the same as previous ones, why change the name? Why use this term at a time marked by real conflagration? Not even Fidel at his most reckless was ever so foolish. At least when he used war-time terminology, he was subtle enough to clarify that it was being done “in peace-time” to avoid poking the bear during a moment of extreme internal weakness.

It is not at all certain that, after Maduro’s eventual fall, the Castro-Canel regime will also crumble

The world’s press has reported the news without giving it too much importance or wasting one drop of ink talking about the U.S. embargo. For example, Spain’s “El País” preferred to quote the economist Pedro Monreal to help explain the subject to its readers. It cites bureaucracy and inefficient management of state institutions as some of the causes. On the other hand, the Cuban government insists that it is a matter of “correcting distortions.” All indications are that that, when they use the verb “to correct,” they are referring to the Royal Academy’s sixth definition of this word, which means to expel excrement.

All the government’s fanfare mask preparations for the crisis Venezuela will experience following presidential elections on July 28. There is no way for Cuba to emerge from the process unscathed. If Maduro loses, it’s all over. If Maduro steals the election, the public outcry will be so great that the sound of protestors banging pots and pans in the streets of Caracas will be heard back in Havana. Anyone with at least a passing knowledge of the Venezuelan situation knows that Maduro does not even have the support of his country’s Communist Party, which describes him as a gangster who brought about a national tragedy.

On the other hand, there is no guarantee that, after Maduro’s eventual fall, the Castro-Canel regime will crumble also. Some heads will roll and replacements will eventually be found for Alejandro Gil, the former economics minister who was summarily removed from office last February. The heads have been falling for more than sixty years but the abyss is so deep that they have not yet hit bottom. Just in case, Díaz-Canel has already prepared a long list of new euphemisms for his next crisis.

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A Deadly Thursday on Cuban Roads With Seven Deaths in Two Accidents

The crashes also left at least three people injured.

The crash in Camagüey involved two cars, one of them stopped on the side of the road / La Tijera / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 5 July 2024 — On Thursday, seven people died on Cuban roads in two traffic crashes. One of them occurred at the exit of Santa Lucía Beach in the province of Camagüey and the other in the town of Las Mangas, in Granma province, according to reports from relatives of the victims and witnesses of both accidents. The crash in Camagüey involved two cars, one of them stopped at the side of the road. According to several witnesses published in the Facebook group “Accidents Buses & Trucks” for more experience and fewer victims, one of the cars stopped for two young people to get out, but they exited through the wrong door and were hit by another vehicle that was coming down the road.

The collision with the two people caused the moving car to overturn and catch on fire at a point near the Los Olivos bridge, in the community of El Carmen, an area known as Las 80. The occupants of the front seats managed to get out but two women traveling in the back died as a result of the flames.

According to witnesses of the accident, at least two other people were injured and were transferred to the municipality of Nuevitas for medical attention

The two young people who died when they were hit by the car have been identified as Cliver Álvarez Tamayo, 17 years old and Dailenis Silva, 19, residents of the municipality of Manatí de Las Tunas, according to the digital newspaper CubaNet. The women who died in the fire were Milagros Hernández and Yamila Marín, as published by the portal Cubanos por el Mundo and the news site CiberCuba. continue reading

According to witnesses of the accident, at least two other people were injured and were transferred to the municipality of Nuevitas to receive medical attention

The other crash this Thursday was a collision between a Yutong bus on the route between Bayamo and Havana and a horse cart in the town of Las Mangas, in Granma province. In the crash, three people died and a girl was seriously injured. All the deceased and the youngest injured were traveling in the cart.

According to relatives of the victims, two of the deceased were brothers and owners of the horse cart. While they were traveling on the road, they picked up a mother with two children; the youngest of the minors was the third person to die in the crash. The passengers and the bus driver were not hurt.

According to relatives of the victims, two of the deceased were brothers and owners of the horse cart

Recently, in the official TV program Round Table, the head of the Specialized Transit Body of the Ministry of the Interior, Roberto Rodríguez, admitted that the massive movements of travelers to beaches and vacation destinations in summer keep the Transit authorities on the Island on alert; they fear that the current economic crisis may influence the accidents. The official also acknowledged that the entity has not been able to “stop the deterioration of the roads and signage.”

The official was pleased that the first half of this year has better indicators than the same period of 2023. According to him, 543 fewer accidents occurred – a decrease of 13% – the number of deaths fell by 23% and the number of injured by 5%. Likewise, the number of victims between 21 and 35 years old – 35% of deaths in accidents are in this age range – also declined, although Rodríguez did not offer specific figures in this case.

Rodríguez did not delve into the reason for the decrease in crashes, but it’s possible that the reduced circulation of vehicles due to the lack of fuel is an important factor.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Omar Rafael García Lazo, Cuban Repressor and ‘Persona Non Grata’ in Colombia, Dies in Car Crash

The Central Committee official and former diplomat in Bogotá died in a car crash

Omar Rafael García Lazo died this Wednesday at the age of 44. / FDHC

14ymedio, July 4, 2024, Madrid — Omar Rafael García Lazo, an official of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, died this Wednesday in a car crash when he was returning to Havana from a “work mission.” The announcement was made by the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) itself, which mourns the loss of a “valuable and honest comrade, as well as a father, son and dedicated husband to his family.”

But García Lazo was also many other things: to the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba he was a repressor; in Colombia he was a persona non grata, expelled for being a spy for the Island; for Nodal (News from Latin America and the Caribbean), an Argentine agency with a marked leftist line, he was a political analyst .

García Lazo, born in Sandino (Pinar del Río) and just 44 years old, studied Social Communications and completed two years of social service in the ideological department of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), from where he moved, in 2007, to the Department of International Relations. In a rapidly rising career, he was promoted to civil servant and held that position from November 2010 to 2017, when he left for Colombia as first secretary of the Cuban Embassy in Bogotá. continue reading

In May 6, 2021, he was abruptly expelled from Colombia, which also named him ’persona non grata’

On May 6, 2021, he was abruptly expelled from Colombia, which also named him persona non grata. At that time, the Foreign Ministry did not give any explanation for the decision and simply claimed that he “carried out activities incompatible with his functions” and that international protocol was followed after verifying the state of the actions that he did not carry out. Havana, for its part, claimed to be unaware of the reasons and pointed out that it was a smokescreen, as it coincided with the protests against the Government of then president Iván Duque.

“This unjustified action is intended to divert the attention of the international community and Colombian society from the violent repression of the military and police forces against protesters, which has caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said. It added that the “unfounded decision” was an “unfriendly act that affects the normal functioning of the Cuban Embassy in Colombia” and assured that its diplomats “fulfill their obligations seriously and rigorously.”

At that time, García Lazo had been included in the list of Cuban repressors for “advising and participating in acts of vandalism and destabilization” for his work at the Colombian Embassy. Not in vain, in 2020 the Colombian magazine Semana had published a report in which it called him out for this reason and also argued that he was the right-hand man of the then Cuban ambassador, José Luis Ponce, whom it accused of being a spy for Cuban intelligence since the 1970s.

García Lazo had also attacked the Cuban opposition from Colombia, specifically members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI)

García Lazo had also attacked the Cuban opposition from Colombia, specifically members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), whose leaders include the imprisoned artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo. “If Valladares’ wheelchair with Mitterrand*, Camaján [Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz] decorated by Bush, and Marta Guacamole [Martha Beatriz Roque] with Obama couldn’t defeat the Revolution, a flag-waving bastard with Trump couldn’t make a difference,” he said on Facebook when the Cuban police stormed the building where several MSI members were on a hunger strike against the arrest of rapper Denis Solís — which had already lasted 10 days — and arrested them.

“If Valladares’ wheelchair with Mitterrand, Camaján decorated with Bush, and Marta Guacamole with Obama could not defeat the Revolution, a flag-waving coward with Trump could not make a difference,” he said on Facebook when the Cuban police stormed the building and arrested several MSI members who were on a hunger strike that had already lasted 10 days, protesting the arrest of rapper Denis Solís. “If your option is the pandemic and dollarized, choose: Covid or cops,” he added.

For these acts, the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba finds that García Lazo has committed threats, defamation and incitement to violence.

The Colombian press claims that Duque’s government spent the entire beginning of 2021 meditating on the decision, despite the fact that the friction with the Cuban regime had been going on for a long time. In January 2019, Colombia asked Havana to hand over the members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) who were then on the island, as part of its delegation in the peace talks.

The request came after the attack against the Cadet School that left 22 dead and whose authorship was acknowledged by the guerrillas. The Cuban government then claimed that it could not extradite them, since it would violate the bases of the agreement. That decision cost a diplomatic confrontation and, in the long run, the inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism drawn up by the United States.

“This person was looking at how to promote protests and destabilization in political groups, which represents a violation of the Vienna Convention”

Iván Duque did not confirm the reasons for García Lazo’s expulsion until the end of 2022, when in an interview with Juan Manuel Cao he gave the yes. “The answer is affirmative, it is yes, when we were going to expel another one they realized and removed him. But one thing is the exercise of diplomatic function and another is putting your fingers in all the sockets to see which one has current, and this person was looking at how to promote protests and destabilization in political groups, which represents a violation of the Vienna Convention,” said the former president.

Since then, García Lazo has devoted himself mainly to his work in the Department of International Relations of the Party Central Committee and written some articles as an analyst for the media.

According to official information, his body will be cremated and his ashes displayed at the Calzada y K Funeral Home in El Vedado, “where he will receive tributes from his colleagues, friends and family.”

*An international campaign for the release of Armando Valladares was led by then-President Francois Mitterrand of France, who made a personal appeal to Fidel Castro.

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Panama Closes Three Border Crossings Cubans Use To Reach the United States

More than 195,000 migrants, including almost 500 Cubans, have used this route in pursuit of the American dream

An official of the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office on the Astí trail fenced with barbed wire / Colombia Ombudsman’s Office

14ymedio, Havana, 5 July 2024 — Panama closed three unauthorized border crossings on Wednesday, which more than 195,000 migrants – including 500 Cubans – have used to make the crossing to the United States this year.

With the support of 300 units of the National Border Service (Senafront), points were blocked on the coasts of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. In addition, barbed wire was placed on the short cuts that lead to the area of Hito de Chucurti, bordering Colombia. Several migrants have shared images on social networks of the barbed wire fence that prevents them from continuing on their way. According to Senafront, the objective of the measure is to channel irregular migration towards the Cañas Blancas crossing, which leads to the community of Bajo Chiquito.

The agency denied that the migrants had destroyed the wire fence. “It’s a video from 2019,” they explained, alluding to a recording that is circulating on social networks, “when, as a result of external situations, the crossing was closed at the border landmark of La Miel in the Caribbean.

Luego de que el Gobierno de Panamá anunciara el cierre de pasos fronterizos en el #Darién, exhortamos al Gobierno nacional a solicitar tener presentes los postulados del derecho internacional de los derechos humanos.

En video, Defensor del Pueblo, Julio Luis Balanta Mina. pic.twitter.com/dsqxVkKVe6

— Defensoría del Pueblo (@DefensoriaCol) July 5, 2024

At his July 1st inauguration, President José Raúl Mulino warned that Panama “will not be an open path for thousands of people who enter illegally backed by an entire organization related to drug and human trafficking.” The president specified that entry into the country will not be allowed “without a passport or valid document.” continue reading

The border closure came days after Panama’s Foreign Minister, Javier Martínez Acha, signed a memorandum of understanding and immigration cooperation with Alejandro Mayorkas, US Secretary of Homeland Security. The agreement includes the transfer of 6,000,000 dollars to develop the Mulino Government’s plan to repatriate migrants who do not have a legal basis to be in Panama.

The new director of the National Migration Service of Panama, Roger Mojica, explained that repatriation or expulsion from the country will depend on the immigration record, taking into account those who do not have the financial support to stay in Panama or have pending cases, according to Prensa Latina.

This year, Panama has deported 406 people, four of them from the Island. In addition, Migration has arrested, without specifying the reasons, four other Cubans.

The Colombian Ombudsman, Julio Luis Balanta Mina, warned this Friday of the humanitarian consequences of closing passage through the Darién jungle. He urged taking into account the health risk of migrants who cross.

“We urge the national government to request that the Panamanian authorities observe and be aware of how important the postulates of international human rights law are,” said Balanta, who insisted on the need to offer international protection to migrants.

Two months ago, the Colombian Ombudsman’s Office published an analytical study in which it simulated the closure of the Darién Gap and its humanitarian impact, putting the right to health on high alert, since it registered 502 health complaints between January 2020 and April 2024, the EFE agency noted.

This document was published before Mulino took power, when he communicated his intention to “close” the passage of migrants through the Darién jungle, which is complicated, since it is a great natural barrier of more than 500,000 hectares shared by Colombia and Panama. It is also the only point of the American continent not crossed by the Pan-American road or any other road.

Emigdio Pertuz Buendía, community leader in Capurganá, in the Colombian department of Chocó, and legal representative of the Major Council of Black Communities of the Acandí River basin and northern coastal area, Cocomanorte, said in an interview on NTN24, that “it was never imagined that a president would make the decision to place barbed wire to prevent the transit of migrants. This migration is supposed to be irregular but not illegal.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Government Withholds Humanitarian Aid Sent by a Religious Organization From the United Kingdom

In a letter sent to 14ymedio, Reverend Bernard Cocker, director of the International Aid Trust, explains his growing concern with this “sad episode” and its lack of solutions.

Cuban authorities have raised objections to handing over the container that Bernard Cocker, director of International Aid Trust, because the organization also sends aid to Ukraine / International Aid Trust

14ymedio, Havana, July 5, 2024 — Since March, Cuban authorities have been holding in the port of Mariel a container of humanitarian aid sent from the United Kingdom by the religious organization International Aid Trust to the evangelical Church En Jesucristo Libres (Rehoboth Ministries), based in Havana. After the corresponding complaints, the Government has alleged that the shipment contains “prohibited items that could be used in a rebellion” and that the sender, the Reverend Bernard Cocker, has “some relationship” with Ukraine, a country that is an “enemy of Russia.”

In a letter sent to 14ymedio on Friday, Cocker, director of the International Aid Trust, explains his growing concern with this “sad episode” and the lack of solutions. The container, shipped on March 6 from the port of Liverpool, contains wheelchairs, clothing, mattresses, food and toys. In addition, according to religious media, the shipment also contains electric batteries, microphones and musical instruments, for a total value of more than $6,500.

“They have decided to appropriate the aid and continue to give us excuses to make the claim deadline expire,” he says. Another excuse given by the authorities is that they were not informed about the arrival of the container, something that Cocker categorically denies. continue reading

“Our people in Cuba contacted the port authorities daily about the arrival and status of the cargo”

“Our people in Cuba contacted the port authorities daily about the arrival and status of the cargo,” he said. The authorities also said that the International Aid Trust had lied to them, since the clothes were new and not donated, to which the reverend replied that they were school uniforms that had changed their logo and would therefore no longer be used.

The most serious allegation, about “prohibited items,” is also denied by Cocker, who says that his office worked for months and studied Cuban customs regulations so that none of the items sent would cause problems for the evangelical church En Jesucristo Libres. Furthermore, it is true that International Aid Trust has sent humanitarian material to Ukraine, but it also does so with India, Sierra Leone, Moldova and Transylvania.

The British Embassy and Consulate in Cuba were the first two official bodies whose mediation the International Aid Trust sought, at the beginning of June. The diplomats, rather late, replied on Friday that they were reviewing the case. Cocker trusts in the embassy’s intercession because, so far, “the authorities have not given any indication that they will respond favorably.” “I am increasingly worried,” he laments.

On June 4, Cocker sent a letter to Sir George Hollingberry, the British ambassador in Havana, informing him of the situation. He stated that the cargo held up in Mariel was made up of donations from English Christians interested in the welfare of Cuba, and that the International Aid Trust has been mediating so that containers of humanitarian goods reach poor countries like the Island since 1991.

“In 32 years of service,” Cocker explained, “the reputation of the International Aid Trust has never been tarnished by breaches of customs regulations, irregularities in accounting, or failure to comply with legal requirements.” The document also mentioned concerns that after too long a period of storage, the cargo could be looted.

“It is with great regret that I am forced to make this public statement to let everyone know that the Cuban authorities have confiscated all donations”

This is not the first time that Cuban authorities have seized containers of humanitarian aid sent by a church. In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, Pastor Mardoqueo Jiménez of the Hispania Bible Church denounced the confiscation of a shipment that was intended to help – according to his calculations – 15,000 Cuban families in need after the disease.

“It is with great regret that I am forced to make this public statement to let everyone know that the Cuban authorities have confiscated all of the donations. Despite complying with all the regulations and permits required in the United States and Cuba, the cargo was not delivered to its intended recipients,” Jiménez explained at the time.

The complaint reached the European Parliament, which acknowledged that, “Despite complying with all the necessary tax and legal requirements, the shipment of humanitarian aid is currently held up at the Port of Mariel by the Cuban authorities, with no clear explanation of why.” At that time, as happened in March with the shipment from International Aid Trust, the paperwork seemed to be in order.
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Ministry of Health Reveals the Number of Oropouche Infections in Cuba and Warns About the Increase in Dengue Fever

Right now there are 17 viral diseases that plague the Island

There are cases of Oropuche in 13 provinces of the country / Granma

14ymedio, Havana, July 5, 2024 — Cuba has registered more than 35,000 cases of Oropouche this year in 13 provinces of the country. The data appears in a table that the Ministry of Health shared –very discreetly and without expressly mentioning the number– in a broadcast of the State TV Mesa Redonda (Round Table) program dedicated to the epidemiological situation in Cuba.

Around 35,000 febrile cases were reported in Cuba / Minsap

Carilda Peña, deputy minister of public health, published another table in which she revealed the incidence rate of dengue fever in the country this week: about 20 suspected cases of having contracted the disease per 100,000 inhabitants. With this figure – which also appeared discreetly on the screen – the official intended to celebrate the results of Cuban health in comparison with the regional situation, based on a report from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to which Cuba, however, did not send data. continue reading

17 viral diseases reported on the island / Minsap

Arleen Rodríguez, the show’s host, did not like the mention of government responsibility in the island’s deplorable state of hygiene and invited Peña to “not touch that key,” while asking her to continue addressing the epidemiological “literacy” of viewers.

The dengue infection curve on the island already exceeds –in week 25 of this year– that of 2022

Peña displayed PAHO graphs showing the regional situation to argue that Cuba, seen in context, was not facing such a serious situation. “We are talking about the fact that this week in the (Pan-American) region, 9,852,482 suspected cases of dengue have been reported. That means an increase of 231%, compared to the same period in 2023,” she insisted, in front of a regional map in which the lack of data on Cuba was clearly noticeable.

She admitted, however, that the curve of dengue infections on the Island already exceeds – in week 25 of this year – that of 2022, when the coronavirus was at its peak.

Dengue incidence rate in the last four years / Minsap

That year, at the same time, the rate was also around 20 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and broke a record in September, when 113 cases were recorded per 100,000 Cubans. At that time, Peña claimed, “very little action was taken,” since all Public Health activity was focused on the coronavirus.

The vice minister attributed the current increase to Cuba’s contact with the outside world and the beginning of summer, and said, in its favor, that until week 20 the situation had been stable.

“When we reach week 20 of the year, which is the end of May and beginning of June, there is an increase in factors that generate the procreation of the vector that transmits the disease; the temperature, the rains, the humidity increase, and we already have the rest of the factors because we are in the tropics. Therefore, the vector population of the transmitting mosquito begins to grow and the disease begins to increase,” she explained.

Oropouche, judging by the graphs and Peña’s words, “is already an epidemic event”

It is a “complex situation,” the deputy minister said, leaving in the background what really worries the population: Oropouche. These fevers, which Vivian Kourí, director of the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, spent a lot of time defining from a scientific point of view, are also on the rise, although the authorities have been hiding the real number of infections for months.

Oropouche, judging by the graphs and Peña’s words, “is already an epidemic event.” “It’s just a matter of time before there are more,” she observed, especially with the state of “the puddles of water, in the ditches, in the grass, bushes,” which are the habitat of the Culex mosquito, which transmits it.

Peña alluded – not without some discomfort on Rodríguez’s part – to the need for “environmental sanitation” and urban hygiene. “We have to continue fumigating inside the house and outside we have to mop, tidy and collect the garbage,” she asked, knowing that many of these tasks are the responsibility of the State Communal Services, whose debacle has been denounced even by the official press.

Summer heat, power cuts, shortages and illnesses create a distressing situation for Cubans, who experience a radical deterioration in their living conditions every July and August. The Oropouche virus, which has already set off alarm bells in Havana and whose spread is becoming increasingly difficult to conceal, is only complicating an already agonizing situation.

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Inspectors Resuscitate 3,200 Cows in Cuba’s Matanzas Province

The Cuban government continues its campaign to control livestock throughout the country

Livestock control has not been well received by many farmers / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, July 5, 2024 — After beginning the livestock control exercise last March, the Matanzas authorities have reached a conclusion: the drop in the number of animals and the quantities of milk only occurred in state records. With 50% of the farmers and landowners inspected, the province has seen a recovery of 24.8% in the birth rate – 3,200 animals – and the option of demanding another 53,760 liters of milk from the farmers.

These indicators “express a response to control,” the official State newspaper Granma writes in an article published on Thursday. According to Roger Jiménez Ramos, deputy delegate for livestock in the province, 1,403 cases of missing animals, 12 undeclared births, 33 animals without a brand and 100 cases of illegal buying and selling have been detected so far.

For Jiménez, this is a reflection of the “lack of control” in the territory – which, according to the official press, extends to other provinces such as Las Tunas, Camagüey and Artemisa, where the authorities have even recorded cases of deceased people who are listed as owners of animals. So far, fines totaling 6,717,800 pesos have been applied, 33 animals have been confiscated and 39 have been forcibly purchased. continue reading

So far, fines totaling 6,717,800 pesos have been imposed, 33 animals have been confiscated and 39 have been forcibly purchased

“Of course, not everything is easy to explain. For example, there are producers who are missing two animals, but who at the time went to the Police to report these losses and, for various reasons, do not have the receipt in their possession to justify this situation. There are others who live very far from the Livestock Registry, and it is are more difficult for them to register or mark the animals,” admits the official, who foresees that the state control commissions must be prepared to offer better contract conditions to the ranchers.

Although the livestock census has not been well received by many farmers, who have been restricted for months from selling their animals or freely trading their produce, the authorities insist on their purpose: “The most important thing about this exercise of control, in our opinion, is that, thanks to greater order and discipline, a slowdown in the decline of the mass is now perceptible, a sign that had not been visible for a long time.” In other words, products (animals in this case) that the Government considers “diverted” have been brought back to the state coffers.

Granma also tries to show the most revolutionary side of the campesinos, interviewing cattle ranchers who agree with the registry, even if they have been penalized. “One of the most prominent farmers in the province, Miguel Cobo, was forced to pay 75,000 pesos, because at the time of the count he was missing six animals.”

The farmer paid, assuming responsibility for not having the documents that indicated the legal sale of the cattle

The farmers paid, assuming responsibility for not having the documents indicating the legal sale of the cattle, but the irregularity could perhaps have been avoided with better police surveillance on the farm. “Every day they killed a cow, they even slaughtered my team of oxen, and it is not possible to raise cattle like this,” Cobo claims.

Another testimony is that of Edismar Galán Quesada, leader of a cooperative, who, despite being in favor of the control, believes that the same effort could be devoted to containing the thieves. “The producers complain a lot because the necessary action is not taken with the necessary agility and firmness against theft and slaughter. There are those who file a complaint, sometimes they even catch the thief, and in the end nothing out of the ordinary happens. There is still a lot of benevolence on that point,” he declares.

He also complains about non-payments by state-owned Acopio companies, which sometimes delay up to 40 days after the deadline. “Another thing is that sometimes the thermos does not have a lacto-densimeter to measure the density of the milk and, then, Ecil (the Dairy Products Company of the province) violates the payment as established to our detriment,” he laments.

However, these are secondary issues for the authorities, who assure that “there is nothing worse than lack of control, which generally has a high cost.” In the case of Matanzas, private livestock accounts for 82.9% of the livestock, 80.5% of the cows and 88% of the total milk production. Therefore, officials estimate that the supervision of these resources will allow the State “to have real data at hand to know what exists in the countryside, and what we have.” Or, in other words, to make the products circulate once again, and exclusively, through official channels.

See also:
“Dead owners”
“Cow slaughter ”
“Cows disappear”

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Several Cuban Political Prisoners Are in ‘Serious Danger’

The international community is called upon to raise its voice against the regime’s abuses

Activists Carlos Michael Morales, José Daniel Ferrer García and Fray Pascual Claro Valladares/ Collage

14ymedio, Havana, July 4, 2024 — After 14 days on a hunger strike, the life of independent journalist Carlos Michael Morales, admitted to the medical unit of the Guamajal prison, in Santa Clara, is in “serious danger,” the organization Cuba Decide denounced on Tuesday.

The activist, who has already been in prison for two years and 10 months for demonstrating in Caibarién, Villa Clara, during the massive protests of 11 July 2021 (’11J’), and who was released in March of this year, was arrested again on May 4 and has been imprisoned for two months without a trial date. In that period he has gone on two hunger strikes, and the latest one has been the most severe.

After several incidents of police harassment, Morales was arrested during a summons in the Criminal Investigation Unit of Caibarién. He immediately began his first hunger strike, which he suspended on May 22, pending the response to a habeas corpus presented by his lawyer. continue reading

Morales was arrested during a summons in the Criminal Investigation Unit of Caibarién. He immediately began his first hunger strike

In a letter that Morales sent after that first strike, he said that, after a strong pain in his chest, he was denied medical assistance and, instead, was beaten by the unit’s commander. The event caused his transfer to the hospital in critical condition.

Almost a month later, after he was denied habeas corpus, the independent journalist resumed his hunger strike on June 19.

Given the seriousness of the situation, the Complaint Center of Cuba Decide reported that it submitted a request for an urgent appeal to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and also urged the international community to denounce human rights violations against Morales and other activists on the Island.

In addition, this Wednesday the IACHR issued precautionary measures in favor of political prisoner Fray Pascual Claro Valladares, sentenced to 10 years in prison for the crime of sedition, after participating in the demonstrations in the city of Nuevitas, Camagüey, in August 2022, and after using social networks to denounce police violence.

The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), which requested the measures from the commission, was notified that the IACHR warned – through a resolution – that Claro Valladares “is in a serious and urgent situation, since his rights to life, personal integrity and health face a risk of irreparable damage.”

Political prisoner Fray Pascual Claro Valladares was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the crime of sedition

In its report, the inter-American petition said that the 22-year-old has been subjected to severe conditions of isolation, intimidation and physical aggression, including a beating in February 2023. In addition, it accused prison officials of threatening him by taking away his medical care, family visits, phonef calls and shipments of medicine and food, if he and his mother continue to report his case.

Last April, Claro Valladares tried to commit suicide after hearing his sentence. After a brief medical evaluation, he was returned to the penitentiary. So far, the IACHR said that the young man had not received psychiatric care, despite the fact that it was not the first time he tried to hurt himself.

In its resolution, the IACHR called on the Government of Cuba to protect the rights to life, personal integrity and health of Claro Valladares; that his conditions of detention be in line with the applicable international standards; that they guarantee he will not receive threats, intimidation, harassment or violence, and that he will receive medical diagnoses and treatment.

Finally, another political prisoner who lives in degrading conditions is José Daniel Ferrer García, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU). Arrested within the framework of the 11J protests, “he has been without the right to phone calls or family and marital visits for almost a year and four months. All this time (he has been) confined in a punishment cell, isolated not only from his family but also from the entire penal community under inhuman, cruel and degrading conditions,” said his wife, Nelva Ortega Tamayo, in an audio sent to the media, organizations and activists.

José Daniel Ferrer is in prison for the third time for political reasons. He was part of the group of prisoners of the Black Spring

In the recording, he explained that he presented himself last Monday at the Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba, for the regulated visit of Ferrer García, and that they were only allowed to deliver food, toiletries and some medicines. Last May, Ortega Tamayo pointed out that in more than two years Ferrer García has only been entitled to 12 family visits and nine marital visits.

José Daniel Ferrer is in prison for the third time for political reasons. He was part of the group of Black Spring prisoners, with a death sentence commuted to 25 years in prison and released after eight years thanks to the efforts of the Vatican and the mediation of Spain, but he refused to go into exile like many of the other released.

In 2019, he was arrested on October 1 and sentenced to prison in February 2020, after a closed-door trial for an alleged crime of injuring another man, a charge that his relatives and collaborators deny. After six months in prison, and in the midst of strong international pressure, his sentence was changed for a sanction of four and a half years of house arrest.

However, more than a year later, Ferrer was arrested and imprisoned during ’11J’ when he barely left his house to join the mobilizations. In August of that year, a judge revoked his house arrest and ordered his re-entry to prison to serve four years and 14 days remaining from the 2020 sentence.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Belarus Presents a ‘Sample of Weapons’ to a Cuban Army Delegation

The Minister of the Armed Forces of Cuba, Álvaro López Miera, and the Minister of the Armed Forces of Belarus, Víctor Jrenin, held their semi-annual meeting

The Cuban general inspected the communication and surveillance equipment of the Belarusian Army and was shown with the drones / Ministry of Defense of Belarus

14ymedio, Havana, 4 July 2024 — A Taurus military gyrocopter -a hybrid between a helicopter and an airplane – and Chinese Vans of the Dajiang special troops carrying machine guns, drones and communication equipment were part of a “weapons show” with which the Ministry of Defense of Belarus received the Minister of the Armed Forces of Cuba, Álvaro López Miera.

With frequent trips to Minsk, López Miera is no stranger in Belarusian military circles. About their visits, the official press of the Island is scrupulously silent, and local agencies – such as Belta – prefer to give few details. The photos that the Belarusian Defense publishes on Telegram say more, in which the Cuban general is seen enthusiastic about his host’s military equipment.

The Minister of Defense, Víctor Jrenin – a regular visitor to Cuba, where he was last January – received the Cuban delegation, made up of several senior officials of the Army, with which he held “negotiations.” During the meeting, both parties evaluated compliance with their agreements – the content of which is not known – during the past six months and ratified their commitment to “military collaboration.” continue reading

The Cuban military visited the barracks of the Special Operations Forces Brigade of Belarus / Ministry of Defense of Belarus

The Cuban military visited the barracks of the Special Operations Forces Brigade of Belarus, where an exhibition of the equipment used by the “small units” was held, as well as the training they undergo – which they exemplified with several exercises and detonations – and an explanation of the “special equipment” of the brigade, including its drones and vehicles. Belarusian Army officers showed López Miera the Taurus gyrocopter of the Polish company Trendak. Used by the armed forces of several European countries, the Trendak – a small aircraft – has capacity for three soldiers and can move at 170 kilometers per hour.

In addition, the Cuban general inspected the communication and surveillance equipment of the Belarusian Army, and he is seen in the photos interacting with drones. Belarus uses, in its arsenal, the Russian-made Irkut, Orlan and Supercam drones, and the Formula, VR-12, Moskit and Busel, Belarusian.

Belarusian Army officers showed López Miera the Taurus gyrocopter of the Polish company Trendak / Trendak Aviation

As for the MZKT-7930 trucks from Polonez, it is an old “Chinese tale” between Minsk and Havana. The Cuban regime has been claiming for months that it is interested in buying Polonez-M missiles, with a range of 300 kilometers, transported by the vehicles that López Miera saw.

Actually manufactured by China – Minsk only manufactures the trucks – Cuba’s interest in missiles was revealed by the Belarusian Defense in November 2023. The agreement for the alleged purchase was signed by the Chief of Staff of the Cuban Army, Roberto Legrá, but neither then nor now has the Island revealed why it wants that class of weaponry.

This Wednesday, López Miera congratulated his counterpart on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazis, an anniversary in whose commemorative parade he participated this Wednesday. In addition, the delegation was taken to the commemorative complex of the Fortress of the Heroes of Brest.

The speeches, medals and tributes are the only things in which both countries have been transparent. The last semi-annual contact between the military chiefs of Minsk and Havana occurred last January in the latter capital, when Jrenin received a decoration from López Miera.

The official press was discreet about the trip and only reported the signing of a “military cooperation document” of secret content, similar to the one that six months earlier had been signed in Minsk, just after the uprising of the Wagner mercenary group against Moscow. In his press conference with Cuban journalists, Jrenin also did not reveal the reason for his stay in Havana and limited himself to stressing that the Island is “a strategic ally in the Western Hemisphere,” a phrase that has been interpreted as a geopolitical warning to the United States and the other NATO countries.

About his “important partner” in the Caribbean, the minister added that Cuba and Belarus are “very similar countries” and “do not give up their objectives.” At one point in the speech, quoting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, he alleged that it was important for the armies of both nations to have good communication, since “military force has become the basis of political relations between our countries.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Russian Deputy Suggests Reinstalling Missiles in Cuba To Pressure the US

Sergei Mironov believes that the Kremlin must respond in this way to Washington’s support for Ukraine.

Cuba has no problem with positioning itself as a key military power in the region, after hosting a Russian flotilla in June / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mexico, 4 July 2024 — Legislator Sergei Mironov, leader of the Just Russia coalition and close to Vladimir Putin, suggested this Thursday that Russia carry out a missile deployment in Cuba similar to the one that caused the so-called October Crisis in 1962. According to Reuters, the politician, a member of the Lower House of Parliament, stated that installing weapons on the Island is one of the Kremlin’s many options if it wants to respond to the West’s support for Ukraine.

Mironov explained that, if Russia sends missiles to Cuba, it could give a signal to the United States, which militarily supports Ukraine and whose missiles were used in Ukrainian attacks against Russian targets in Crimea. “The possible use of a base in Cuba, which was recently visited by Russian ships transporting hypersonic weapons, is just one of the many options,” he said in a statement quoted by the British agency.

The proposal of the leader of Just Russia is similar to that made last January by the first vice president of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, Alexei Zhuravlev, who at that time wanted Russia to place nuclear weapons near the United States in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Today, the Cuban missile crisis could occur anywhere…

The legislator mentioned the October Crisis, adding that “today, the Cuban missile crisis could occur anywhere, taking into account the modern capabilities of the Russian Army, Air Force and Navy.” He also said that Washington had embarked on an arms race that could have “devastating consequences” for the United States. continue reading

Last week, Putin stated that Russia should resume production of intermediate-range and even shorter-range nuclear missiles and consider where to deploy them, after the United States brought similar missiles to Europe and Asia.

That detail did not go unnoticed by Mironov, who said that “it is worth remembering that the cause of the crisis of the 1960s was the deployment of American missiles in Turkey,” and “now the United States is again plotting to deploy weapons near the borders of Russia, supply long-range weapons to the Kiev regime and plan and direct attacks against Russian territory.”

It was 56 years ago that the intelligence services of US President John Kennedy discovered that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.

The world was on tenterhooks for 13 days, from October 15, 1962, when the United States discovered the 42 Soviet missiles installed in San Cristóbal, until October 28, when Moscow ordered their withdrawal, in spite of the opinion of Fidel Castro, who had a more violent position in the conflict. This incident is considered the moment when the Cold War superpowers were closest to nuclear war.

In the middle of the Cold War, R-12 and R-14 missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, were installed in Cuba/ FidelCastro.Cu

The invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led Russia’s relations with the West to their lowest point since that moment and has earned Moscow the majority rejection of the international community. The Kremlin, for its part, has dusted off some old alliances that remained since the Soviet era, such as the one with Havana. The reactivation of this relationship has included a series of military exchanges, as well as the visit of a Russian naval fleet headed by a nuclear-powered submarine last month.

Cuba has no problem showing itself to its allies as a key military point in the region. Last December, the Cuban Army allowed a reporter from the Russian channel Zvezda to record part of its underground arsenal that includes war tanks, missile launchers, Russian Ural-4320 and Chinese Howo trucks. There were also soldiers capable of walking on barbed wire and a labyrinth of secret tunnels.

When the Russian flotilla entered the capital’s pier, at the beginning of June, the submarine Kazan and the frigate Admiral Gorshkov were carrying missiles of various types: hypersonic Zircon, cruiser Kalibr and anti-ship Onyx. On its way to Havana, the Russian flotilla passed very close to Florida, which set off alarms in the United States, which also deployed a flotilla in the area, in addition to sending a nuclear-powered submarine to its Guantánamo naval base, located in Cuban territory.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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