Translating Cuba

Better and Cheaper, Spanish Beer Beats Out Cuba’s Own Domestic Brands

“You have to take an aspirin when you drink Bucanero because it gives you a terrible headache.”

Spain’s Mahou has seen its popularity in Cuba grow in recent years. / Screen capture / Cubavisión

14ymedio, Madrid, 17 June 2024 — Cubans do not like their own country’s beer, which is both more expensive and not as good as the imported brands. This helps explain why the island is the second largest overseas market for Spanish brewers. In 2023, 20% of their exports went to Cuba, right behind Portugal at 22% and well ahead of sales to the United Kingdom and France. The figures come from the “2023 Socioeconomic Report on the Spanish Beer Sector,” which was released last week. According to the report, Spanish breweries sold 416 million liters last year, 83.2 million of which were sold on the island.

Jacobo Olalla Marañón, general director of the Spanish Brewers’ Association, which produced the report, told “El Independiente” that private companies have clearly been key to this expansion into the Cuban market. Their dramatic increase in market share began in 2021, when sales of Spanish beer grew 62% over the previous year. They skyrocketed 196% in 2022 and another 193% in 2023. continue reading

Spanish breweries sold 416 million liters last year, 83.2 million of which were sold on the island

Olalla Marañón attributes this growth to expanded trade opportunities following Cuba’s relaxation of import restrictions in 2020, which he says have allowed beer and a wide variety of other goods to be brought into the country.

While there have been no new regulatory changes in the interim that specifically deal with foreign trade, Cuba did adopt legislation authorizing the creation of small and medium size private companies (MSMEs). This coincided not only with the Covid-19 pandemic but also with the precipitous fall of the country’s already meager domestic beer production, which has aggravated the trade imbalance.

“The growth of tourism in Cuba has [also] stoked demand for beer in a country where Spanish hospitality companies have a strong presence,” he somewhat erroneously adds. While the latter assertion can indeed explain the phenomenal growth in sales, Cuban tourism has grown only in relative terms since 2020, when the entire sector was shut down due to the pandemic and was starting from zero.

At that point, tourism had nowhere to go but up. It is still a far cry from where things were in 2018, for example, when Cuba had a record 4.6 million visitors from overseas. Subsequent signs of recovery have been very weak, with fewer than 600,000 tourists in 2021, 1.6 million in 2022 and 2.4 million in 2023. Meanwhile, most of the major players in the international tourism industry have fully recovered or surpassed their pre-pandemic levels.

Spanish beer imports arrived in the midst of a precipitous decline in domestic beer production. In 2023, the island produced 124,570,000 liters, more than the 81,600,000 in the previous year and a little more than the 100 million in 2021. Nevertheless, this was only half of what was produced before the pandemic. Cuba produced 264,680,000 liters of beer in 2018 and 258,690,000 liters in 2019. Even in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the island’s breweries churned out 149,600,000 liters. Data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) shows that imports from Spain have grown in relative proportion to the decline of the domestic industry itself.

Data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) show that imports from Spain have grown in relative proportion to the decline of the domestic industry itself

Sales figures and customer preferences indicate that domestic beer production has not recovered since the pandemic. With fewer tourists willing to pay more for something with a “Made in Cuba” label, and with new opportunities for importing better quality products, domestically produced beer has lost ground.

Cubans are the primary market for the locally produced products but beer fans tend to reject the local product because the “unstable” quality of the water affects the taste of Cuba’s Cristal and Bucanero brand beers. “You have to take an aspirin when you drink Bucanero because it gives you a terrible headache,” says one consumer who has switched to the Spain’s Mahou beer.

As part of measures to stimulate domestic production, Cuba introduced a special tariff on tobacco and alcoholic beverages and tobacco, with an exemption for beer, at the beginning of this year. In April, however, a new tax was levied on imported beer, though one that is 10% lower than on beverages with higher alcohol content. Instead of the 10% general tariff and 5% for the most-favored-nation tax they had been paying, importers must now pay 20% and 10% respectively (30% and 15% in the case of cigarettes, rums and other spirits). We will have to wait until next year to find out what repercussions of this tax increase will ultimately have but consumers have already noticed an increase in the price of domestic beer as well.

Meanwhile, Bucanero is hoping to improve production thanks to a four-million-euro investment by the Italian automated bottling company Comac. The plan is to design and build a new plant in Holguín to produce barrels with the goal of doubling production of its existing factory, which it has operated in the province since 1990. The factory now operates as a public-private partnership with the Canadian company Cerbuco, a subsidiary of the Belgian company Interbrew N.V. According to government press outlets, it currently produces two million liters of beer a month.

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Russia Supplies Cuba With the Record Amount of 126,000 Tons of Wheat in a Year

The figure is 1.7 times higher than the previous year, but in previous years between 20,000 and 40,000 tons were exported annually

Wheat flour at the José Antonio Echeverría mill. / Cuban Flour Milling Company

14ymedio, Moscow, 4 July 2024 — Russia supplied between July 2023 and June 2024 the record number of 126,000 tons of wheat to Cuba, almost 1.7 times more than during the previous year, according to Rusagrotrans, the Russian rail transport operator specialized in the transfer of grain and fertilizers.

According to the Russian agency Interfax, in the 2022-2023 season, Russia exported 76,000 tons of wheat to Cuba, a figure also considerably higher than in previous years, when exports of Russian grain to the largest of the Antilles ranged between 20,000 and 40,000 tons per year.

In addition, Rusagrotrans indicated that, if in previous years the wheat was shipped to the Island from the port of Novorossíisk, in the Black Sea, this year the bulk of the cargo (101,000 tons, 80% of the total) was dispensed through the Visotski port, in the Gulf of Finland. continue reading

Rusagrotrans indicated that the bulk of the cargo was dispensed through the Visotski port, in the Gulf of Finland

The wheat, sent by the Novosibirsk Food Corporation from Siberia and the Urals, was transported to the Visotsky port in special wagons for the loading of grain belonging to Rusagrotrans, and then left for Cuba by sea.

Last March, during a visit to Russia by the Minister of Foreign Trade, Ricardo Cabrisas, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Chernishenko reported that a new loan would be made to the Island to “guarantee the stable supply of oil, petroleum products, wheat and fertilizers,” said Prensa Latina.

In June, Cabrisas returned to the country in search of funding for Cuba’s Development Plan until 2030, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2024 (SPIEF), where it was reported that exports of agro-industrial products from Russia to Cuba had doubled last year, compared to 2022.

In the meeting, the Russian Minister of Agriculture, Oksana Lut, indicated that Moscow considered it possible to further expand sales and assured that her country has all the necessary resources to “guarantee the food security of the Cuban State.”

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

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Ten Days Guarding the Manzanares Building To Prevent the Theft of Belongings

A building collapse forced the residents to leave their apartments and they don’t want to lose everything

The collapse of part of an apartment created a domino effect / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 3 July 2024 — San Francisco Street at the corner of Carlos III, in Central Havana, is still closed with a yellow ribbon and an old wicker sofa that prevents the passage of vehicles. Since part of the emblematic Manzanares building collapsed on Sunday, June 23, several affected neighbors have been stationed in the surroundings to avoid the looting of their belongings. This Wednesday, the arrival of some wooden beams, to shore up the entrance, gave them some hope of being able to evacuate some clothes and appliances.

The posts, brought by the state brigade that works on the collection of the interior debris, were placed on the asphalt, very close to the facade at the number 912, a wall full of moisture that for years showed the problems that affected one of the icons of art deco in Havana. With long faces, the victims who have been watching on the street calculated whether those reused wooden beams with signs of deterioration will also be able to support the structure and allow them to access their apartments.

The victims watch on the street, calculating whether the beams, with signs of deterioration, will be able to support the structure

Inside, the panorama is much more serious than can be seen from the outside. The collapse of part of an apartment on an upper floor, which began in the patio area, created a domino effect continue reading

that dragged down the apartments on the lower floors. The mountain of debris exceeds the height of a man, and the pieces of wall piled up have dimensions that are impossible to carry without heavy machinery. A hill of stones and twisted steel blocks the passage to the rest of the building.

San Francisco Street on the corner with Carlos III, in Centro Habana / 14ymedio

Above the ruins, the sun is reflected through the hole where once there were small interior balconies where the families hung their clothes. “The question is no longer whether we will be able to return to our homes but if we will be able to save some things that remained inside,” an old woman, who claims not to have moved from the place since that fateful Sunday, told 14ymedio. “We began to feel a bit of sand falling from above and we went out. Then we heard the roar, and we lost everything: ceiling, beds, televisions and even the food we had in the refrigerators.”

Now the residents hope to arrive before the thieves, who climb rooftops, go down drain pipes and come at night

Now, the the residents hope to arrive before the thieves, who climb rooftops, go down drain pipes and come at night, approaching the wallet that was left on the table, the crucifix inherited from a grandmother that hangs on a wall or the electric pot which until two weeks ago a family used to cook rice. It is a race against the clock in which they are the ones who lose: the walls of rubble prevent them from entering what was once their home.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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More Than 220 Artists Denounce the Police Violence in Cuba Against Two Intellectuals

The letter is signed by Leonardo Padura, Fito Páez and Fernando Pérez, among others.

Image published by Jenny Pantoja Torres with Alina Bárbara López to report her departure from the police station on the day they were both violently treated. / Jenny Pantoja Torres

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, July 3, 2024 — More than 220 writers and artists signed an open letter in which they denounce the “police violence” with which the intellectual Alina Bárbara López and the anthropologist Jenny Pantoja were recently treated.

The letter, released on Tuesday by the independent website CubaXCuba (CXC), is signed among others by the writer Leonardo Padura, the Argentine musician and singer-songwriter Fito Páez and the film director Fernando Pérez.

“The use of force, the criminalization of dissent and imprisonment do not solve our real problems. All Cubans have the right to propose our ideas to get out of this crisis,” the signatories said.

“All Cubans have the right to propose our ideas to get out of this crisis”

The criticism refers to the treatment received by López, a member of the board of directors of CXC, and Pantoja, during their arrest while traveling from Matanzas to Havana to make a public protest.

According to the account of both intellectuals, the police hit them, threw them to the floor, forcibly put them in the patrol car and held them for hours in a police station.

López, 58, told EFE this Wednesday, two weeks later, that she continues to suffer severe pain in one shoulder and dizziness. continue reading

The signatories of the letter emphasize that Cuban artists and intellectuals “have the right to assume their role in this context, because culture is the stage on which the problems of any society are advanced and resolved in time.”

According to CXC, among the first signatories to the complaint are those who are also recognized figures of Cuban cinema such as the filmmakers and screenwriters Ernesto Daranas and Kiki Alvarez; the actors Luis Alberto García and Héctor Noas; the professor and critic Gustavo Arcos, and the researcher and critic Juan Antonio García Borrero.

Also among the signatories are the national prize winner of Plastic Arts of Cuba, Lázaro Saavedra, and the national prize winners of Literature, Luís Álvarez and Maggie Mateo.

López, a professor, historian and editor, has been arrested on several occasions in recent months for making symbolic protests, and as a result of these actions she was sentenced at the end of last year to pay a fine for a crime of disobedience.

Also among the signatories are the national prize winner of Plastic Arts of Cuba, Lázaro Saavedra and the national prize winners of Literature, Luís Álvarez and Maggie Mateo

The intellectual has declared herself in “contempt” of the sentence and refused to pay the fine, aware that she could go to jail, as she has written in different articles on social networks.

The NGO Prisoners Defenders, based in Madrid, said that this trial “without guarantees” had “political motivations” and sought only to “repress the exercise of the fundamental rights” of López, whom they described as a “victim of conscience.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Government Describes as Ineffective and Harmful the 30% Profit Cap on Sales from the Private Sector to the State

Economist Pedro Monreal points out that this measure “entails the risk of corrupt markets.”

The sale of imported flour by private parties has, on many occasions, allowed the state sector to have bread. / Escambray

14ymedio, Madrid, 28 June 2024 — Cuba’s private sector will be able to obtain a maximum profit of 30% on the goods and services it sells to the State as of July 1. This Thursday, the Cuban Government made public a resolution – dated Tuesday – in which this limit is established with the objective of “containing the expenses of state entities in their economic relations with non-state forms of management.” The measure is, as economist Pedro Monreal summarizes, a variant of “price caps,” which not only have not shown their effectiveness, but can even be harmful.

“State entities, in the process of economic contracting with non-state methods of management for the acquisition of goods and services, agree on prices and rates whose maximum profit rate does not exceed thirty percent (30%) of the total of costs and expenses, as well as the amount corresponding to the application of taxes on Sales and Services,” details the resolution published in the Official Gazette.

The text, which emphasizes the containment of inflation as its goal, urges lower-level administrations (provincial and municipal) to approve the maximum prices and rates of the goods and services they select based on the needs of each territory.

Private sector retail sales account for just 4.1% of those of the country as a whole. Although it is not known what part of them end up at the state sector

The impact of the measure, provided it works, would be more than limited. As Monreal points out, private sector retail sales account for only 4.1% of those of the country as a whole. Although it is not known what part of these sales ends up in the state sector, the percentage is too negligible to have any type of significant consequence. continue reading

“In addition to the fact that the base of ‘savings’ in state expenditures by limiting the rate of profit on non-state sales acquired by state entities does not appear to be very large, experience indicates that ‘price caps’ are not effective to reduce inflation,” the expert indicates.

The Cuban economist insists that the way to contain inflation, which has not stopped growing exponentially since the entry into force of the so-called Ordering Task (2021), is expense reduction. The largest State budget items go to Health (19%) and Education (17%), but both are essential for the Government, in addition to being “problematic” – Monreal describes – for society, which is why the specialist suggests the cuts in the next largest sector, Public Administration and Defense (16%).

“Prices must essentially be fashioned in the market (even in regulated markets). Replacing this function of the market with ‘powers’ of local officials not only restricts market prices, but also entails the risk of ‘corruption markets’, Monreal concludes in an X thread in which he has recorded his analysis of measures.

Replacing that market function with ‘powers’ of local officials not only restricts market prices, but also risks ‘markets of corruption’

The publication of the information in Cubadebate has generated an avalanche of comments in a few hours in which, in general terms, distrust is perceived regarding the measure. “With knowledge of the facts, it will mean a new brake on many activities. For example, tourism, which, in order to be able to provide services relies on many private companies. Imagine now, with the crisis of ITH [marketing company for the sector] not being able to supply its clients and, starting July 1, applying that measure, are we prepared?” a reader points out.

Others have seen, immediately, how corruption is going to run rampant. “Profit rate = Income – (costs + expenses). In other words, a high price can be perfectly justified by saying that the costs or expenses were high; no one can control that for an individual. We are kicking as we drown.”

Some readers point out that the measure is correct or that the 30% profit is already too much and the margins should be tightened even more, comments that are appreciated by the Ministry of Finance and Prices itself, which intervenes in the debate. However, a large group of users agree that the Government is insisting on a path that has never been successful.

“Although the price cap is considered counterproductive by many economists, practice has demonstrated its inefficiency in the best of cases, plus its counterproductive effect in the majority of cases. So, here we are, continuing to stumble over the same stone. Tripping over a stone is not bad if you do it for the first time, but in Cuba we do it so many times that we end up falling in love with them.”

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Flowers for One of the Many Defunct ATMs in Cuba

The ATM machine at the Metropolitan Bank of Estancia and Conill, in Havana, was a spectacle this Monday

The spontaneous offering confirmed that they had perished from breakdowns and the deficit of Cuban pesos / Cuba]

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 2 July 2024 — A flower on the keyboard of an ATM at the Banco Metropolitano de Estancia y Conill, in Havana, was the spectacle that greeted customers who arrived early this Monday to withdraw cash. Both ATMs were out of service, and the spontaneous offering confirmed that they had perished from breakdowns and the deficit of Cuban pesos.

Shortly thereafter, one of the ATMs was refilled, and the line grew as the morning progressed. Even the bank of Nuevo Vedado had residents coming from the nearby neighborhood of El Cerro, who walked from the vicinity of the Almendares River on 26th Avenue and some other neighborhood of the Boyeros municipality, where “there is no money in any branch,” as explained by someone who paid 200 pesos to ride in an almendrón (a shared taxi) in order to be able to collect her retirement.

The line moved very slowly. After noon, some of those who were waiting despaired and left, but workers from the nearby ministries and state agencies that abound in the area also arrived. “It’s my lunch hour, but I’m going to spend it trying to get my salary from last month,” said an employee who finally gave up in the face of the prolonged wait, aggravated by an interruption to recharge the device with cash, which forced the rapid depletion of the bills. continue reading

The murmur of customer dissatisfaction continued until a scream caught everyone’s attention: “They’re out of money!

After one o’clock in the afternoon, a scream invaded the line. Two employees of the Metropolitan Bank itself, who were in line, although they had spent most of their time inside the air-conditioned premises, came out, both with several credit cards in their hands, to extract money. “We are forbidden to take cash out of the window so we have to take it, like everyone else, from the ATM,” one of the women defended herself against the numerous complaints about the time they took with all the operations and the danger that the women would grab the few pesos that were left.

Finally, the bank workers took their dozens of bills and returned to the branch. The murmur of dissatisfaction of the customers was maintained for a while until a scream caught everyone’s attention: “They’re out of money!” A frustrated old man, standing in front of the ATM, removed his expelled magnetic card without receiving any cash. “Tomorrow will be another lost day for me,” he sighed.

The stampede wasn’t long in coming. As in those wakes where the coffee is finished and the chairs in front of the deceased’s coffin are broken or uncomfortable, people left the ATMs to rest in peace, with their screens off, their insides empty and the floral offering now withered by the passing of the hours.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Private Businesses in Cuba Hide the Chicken and Other Products To Avoid the Capped Prices

State foreign exchange shops sell the same items at more expensive prices

The EJT agro market at 17 and K in El Vedado, Havana, usually with very well stocked shelves, was almost empty / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, 3 July 2024 — A day after the new measures announced by the Government on June 27, which establish a maximum profit margin of 30% on private sales to the State, it is not yet known with certainty whether or not the prices are capped for six products in private retail stores. There is only one thing certain: these basic necessities included on the list of capped prices by some municipal governments this weekend disappeared from the shelves on Tuesday.

On Saturday, the authorities of Plaza de la Revolución (Havana), Jobabo (Las Tunas) and Pinar del Río published lists of products with maximum prices for cooking oil (900 pesos per liter), chopped chicken (680 per kilogram), powdered milk (1,675 per kilo), sausages (1,045 per kilogram), pasta (835 pesos per kilo) and powdered detergent (630 pesos per kilo). But yesterday, Monday, when the regulation was supposed to come into force, in municipalities like Boyeros they said that they didn’t know anything, and among the businessmen it was all rumors and confusion.

“Does anyone know anything about the official prices? We’re confused.” The comment of Yulieta Hernández Díaz, president of Grupo de Construcciones Pilares, summed up the state of the matter well. continue reading

This Tuesday, the bewilderment of Cubans is even greater. The agro market operated by the Youth Labor Army (EJT) of the Armed Forces, at 17 and K in El Vedado, Havana, usually very well stocked, had almost all its shelves empty. The few products for sale were piled up together on the top shelves on the K Street side.

Prices of meat products in the state foreign exchange store La Época / 14ymedio

The sellers, however, responded to the surprised customers with a simple shrug of the shoulders. “They say they don’t know, but it’s clear that they must know something,” said an old woman. It was the same in the Arango market in Luyanó. “There’s nothing on the shelves; it’s dead, empty, a very strange thing,” a neighbor told this newspaper.

In the butcher shop at 17 and K, which operates as a private business, there was only chicken breast and picadillo [chopped meat]. The clerk said that he didn’t know why there were no chicken quarters or thighs, but customers could hear him talking on the phone with someone who told him that he that he had to change the blackboard: “Now I have to put the prices in kilograms.” He didn’t mention the amounts.

In the private business (MSME) Zona K’liente they weren’t selling the bird either. “There is no chicken or milk anywhere.” “There is no chicken and there won’t be,” was the forceful response of the butcher of the 19 and B market, also in El Vedado. The reason? “Because they capped the prices.” And he cried out: “Better to raise chickens at home!”

Something happened, of course, in the last three days, and the authorities were reluctant to report it. A butcher from Sancti Spíritus gave the explanation to this newspaper: yesterday he was introduced to some “comrades” of the Party along with two inspectors, who warned him of the entry into force of the regulations and “they read the prices.” They didn’t give him any citation: “It was just a verbal warning, and they told me that there could be consequences if I increased the price of those products.”

“They say they don’t know, but it’s clear that they do”

It was just what an anonymous official source had warned in an audio that spread like wildfire since Saturday, in which the “established” prices were specified. The voice, with an accent from the west of the Island, assured that “groups of confrontation” were going to go to private businesses to give them “a wake-up call.” Subsequently, it warned, there might be “a forced sale of these products or confiscations of them for the social institutions that also need these products.”

As a result of the uncertainty and the threats, private individuals have simply hidden the merchandise. Also in Sancti Spíritus, a neighbor said that he had managed to buy chicken in a nearby MSME, “just for being trustworthy”: 10 pounds at 4,000 pesos.

“Chicken cannot have disappeared from the face of the earth; it’s here in Cuba, but they hide it because they don’t want to sell it at the prices dictated by the State,” explained another Cuban, a resident of Central Havana. “It’s always the same: they capped the price of taxis, the taxis disappeared; they capped the price of malanga and the malanga disappeared. Well, now chicken has disappeared.”

In four years, as seen in an official graph, private sector sales have gone from 4.1% of the total to 44.4% / Onei

Meanwhile, in the State stores selling in freely convertible currency (MLC), there were not only the lost products in that had been sold in pesos, but they were much more expensive. In La Época, in Central Havana, detergent of 1.5 kilos was at 5.45 dollars (1,908 pesos at the informal exchange rate), and 1.25 kilos of Argentine chicken was at 6.55 dollars (2,293 pesos).

“They’re never going to cap themselves, as you can imagine,” said a client at the doors of the MLC store.

The effort to attack the MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized enterprise) by imposing a profit cap on them has been criticized by specialists such as Pedro Monreal, who insists that the way to contain inflation, which has not stopped growing exponentially since the entry into force of the so-called Ordering Task* (2021), is none other than the reduction of expenses.

The economist has again published a revealing post on Tuesday, based on figures published yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (Onei) that indicate the spectacular increase in the weight of the “non-state sector” in retail sales. In four years, as observed in an official graph, private sector sales have gone from 4.1% of the total to 44.4%, while state sales went from 95.9% to 55.6%.

It remains to be seen whether prices will be discussed on State TV’s Round Table program scheduled for this Tuesday, to which “leaders of the Communist Party” are invited to “analyze partisan actions based on boosting food production in the country.” Cubans know what the end of the film is: a shortage of products and more difficulties to obtain them.

*Translator’s note: The Ordering Task was a collection of measures that included eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso (CUP) as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Owner of La Carreta Is Rewarded and the Owner of the Diplomarket Is Punished

Both Havana businesses are owned by Cuban-Americans

Obel Martínez (pink shirt) is the main owner of the restaurant La Carreta / Facebook of the Culinary Federation of Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, 2 July 2024 — Not all private businesses on the Island receive the same treatment by the Cuban Government. The La Carreta restaurant is one of the lucky ones. This Monday, a year after the iconic establishment reopened, now restored and in private hands, it has been recognized by the state Culinary Federation of Cuba for “promoting authentic Creole cuisine.”

In a Facebook post, illustrated with photographs, the institution highlighted the work of the owners of the premises, Obel Martínez and Ramón Feria, who “expressed their decision to make the restaurant a mandatory reference site for nationals and foreigners.” The text also says that “entrepreneurship” has rescued “the emblematic facility that had existed for 50 years before it deteriorated from the passage of time and abandonment,” not to mention the previous owner who ruined the place almost eight years ago: the State.

Since its reopening and with its rich gastronomic offer, La Carreta became a must, not only for foreigners, but also among the people of the emerging middle class with dollars to spend. However, the dazzling success of its main owner, Obel Martínez, raised suspicion. continue reading

La Carreta became a must not only for foreigners, but also among the people of the emerging middle class with dollars to spend

Just when his company was approved in Cuba, Martínez was granted U.S. nationality, specifically in December 2022. His signature is number 5,639 in the registry of private businesses with the name of Mojito Martínez, and with it he opened the Mojito-Mojito bar, in the heart of Old Havana.

“Obel fled Castroism and now makes a living from it, enjoying at the same time all the benefits and profits of the American dream: he plays a capitalist from Havana, with the support of local authorities,” an anonymous source told this newspaper at the time, who said that Martínez was still living in Miami, Florida.

As a local development project, the same source added, he had received a loan of 10 million pesos from the municipal government, specifically the 250 branch of the Banco Metropolitano, located on Línea Street, in El Vedado. As official television confirmed in a report last September, La Carreta “was recovered thanks to the close collaboration with the government of the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución.”

Martínez is one of the Cuban businessmen who emigrated to the United States and who, stealthily, for years and with the acquiescence of the regime, carry out business in Cuba. Another of them was Frank Cuspinera Medina, owner of Diplomarket, the so-called “Cuban Costco”. The past tense of the verb indicates his recent fall from grace, which contrasts with the praise received by Martínez.

Martínez is one of the Cuban businessmen who emigrated to the United States and who, stealthily, for years and with the acquiescence of the regime, carry out business in Cuba

Cuspinera was allegedly arrested, along with his wife, Camila, on June 20. The Facebook page La Tijera reported that a State Security operation had arrived at the supermarket along with “two buses” carrying auditors from Gaesa (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.), the Armed Forces conglomerate.

On June 21, in the WhatsApp group managed by Diplomarket, a message announced that they were “closed until further notice,” explaining: “We have problems operating because of the commercial license that must be renewed.” Similarly, the app, which can still be visited, presents a caption: “We are out of service – Send us an email.”

Since then, there has been no news of the businessman and his wife, but there is indeed evidence that not all private individuals are equal before the law in Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Without Explanation, the Established Price Caps Are Canceled for the Private Sector in Cuba

The measure was due to come into effect on Monday for chicken, sausages, oil, spaghetti, powdered milk and detergent.

A MSME in Central Havana, this Monday, sells chicken at twice the price established by some local governments / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 1 July 2024 — As of this Monday, the prices capped for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) should be a reality. At least in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución (Havana), in Jobabo (Las Tunas) and in Pinar del Río, but local administrations have backtracked after publishing the new discounted prices for six basic necessities.

The items that from July 1 would have an “officially approved” price – as the authorities now say – were chicken, sausages, oil, pasta, powdered milk and powdered detergent. The prices were the same in the three provinces, except for a liter of cooking oil, which in Plaza de la Revolución is capped at 990 pesos and in Pinar del Río at 900. A half-kilogram package of pasta is capped at 415 pesos in Havana and 350 in Pinar del Río.

A kilo of chopped chicken could not exceed 680 pesos (a pound is set at 310 and and a 20-kilogram box at 13,600); milk powder, at 1,675 (500 grams are at 840); a kilo of sausages would have a maximum price of 1,045 (500 grams at 530 pesos and 340 grams at 350); pasta at 835 pesos, and detergent powder at 630.

The figures coincided with those provided by an unknown official source through an audio that ran like wildfire through the Island’s cell phones this weekend. continue reading

In the visit this Monday to a MSME of Plaza de la Revolución, they had no news of the new prices established

On the other hand, in Plaza de la Revolución, prices for other products, such as soft drinks, cookies and even fruits and vegetables were also capped. Thus, a pound of malanga cost 150 pesos, tomatoes cost 100, plantains 70, and guava and mango were capped at 50 pesos. The Ciego Montero canned soft drinks could not cost more than 200 pesos, the Bucanero and Perla Negra malts, 260, and the “little package” of cookies, 50.

On Monday’s visit to a MSME of that same municipality in Havana, they had no news of the prices established by the Government. Ten pounds of chicken thighs cost 4,000 pesos, and a kilo of chopped chicken breast was at 2,300, even though they didn’t have those items at the moment. A kilo of powdered milk cost 2,900 pesos, far from the 1,675 established.

While it is true that the authorities of Central Havana had not communicated a list of maximum prices, the differences in those indicated for other municipalities was notable for the MSMEs in the neighborhood. In San Lázaro, one business sold 10 pounds of chicken at 4,000, and a kilo of chopped chicken breast at 1,750 pesos, more than double what was established in Plaza de la Revolución. In Infanta, chicken was even more expensive: 4,500 for 10 pounds.

The sign says ten pounds of chicken thighs cost 4,000 pesos and a kilo of chopped chicken breast cost 2,300, even though they didn’t have those items available / 14ymedio

The “officially established “prices were part of the new measures announced by the Ministry of Finance and Prices on June 27 in a resolution published in the Official Gazette. The text did not specify prices but stated that “state entities, in the process of economic contracting with non-state management forms for the acquisition of goods and services” would agree on “prices and tariffs whose maximum profit rate does not exceed thirty percent (30%) of the total costs and expenses.”

Similarly, the regulation gave power to the provincial and municipal councils to approve the maximum rates “for the goods and services they select,” taking into account” the “particularities of each territory.” Since then, rumors, confusion and improvisation have been the trend on the Island.

“What is known? Only that they have been evaluating prices for basic necessities and that some meetings were held with private economic actors (self-employed workers and representatives of MSMEs). Beyond that, there is only speculation and tension, overlapping and explicit. Nothing is clear; why? Because communication is not part, as it should be, of local government management, which should set out, explain, anticipate the facts and eradicate speculation and tension,” complained the official journalist of Las Tunas, Yaidel Miguel Rodríguez Castro.

This same Monday, the Provincial Board of Directors of Boyeros warned on its networks that today “the newly established prices” come into force – without specifying them – and left several phone numbers “to report violations of the established prices.” However, in a call made by this newspaper, neither of the two officials who responded – one of them identified as a “specialist” – was aware of any list of prices.

“The mango is local and in season, so the price is insane.”

Meanwhile, in neighborhood groups there have already been complaints. “I see that there are products that cost less by a few pesos, others that do not and some that even cost more. This is the legalization of abuse,” said a resident of Plaza de la Revolución.

“I think those prices were set by an owner of a MSME, because they can’t lose and the customers can’t win,” said another comment. And another user complained: “I can understand why the frozen chicken, which is imported, costs that much, but that mangos cost 50 pesos a pound doesn’t make sense. It’s a local product and in season, so the price is insane.”

For a fourth neighbor, “if the State is selling malanga at 150 a pound, I now feel defeated. A retiree like me isn’t able to eat a purée of malanga.”

The measure not only seemed alien to the majority of Cubans, who receive a salary in pesos and don’t have access to dollars, but also demonstrated a total lack of consciousness about the market. Entrepreneurs would not be able to sell imported products for less than what it costs them, unless they choose to lose money.

The inhabitants of Plaza de la Revolución also doubted how the measure was going to be supervised: “Who is going to ensure that this is fulfilled? Another body of inspectors? More people to pay a salary to? Everything is going to be more expensive for us as a country.”

“Who is going to ensure that this is fulfilled? Another body of inspectors? More people to pay a salary to?”

In the anonymous audio of this weekend, the official voice, with an accent from the west of the Island, assured that “groups of inspectors are going to go to each place,” referring to the MSMEs, and those that don’t have the established prices “will be exposed by the mass media.” The first thing that would happen is, according to the same source, “a wake-up call with fines” and “later, a forced sale of these products or their confiscation and donation to social institutions that need them.”

In addition, it was announced that the MSMEs would be exempt from the payment of tariffs for capped products, although it seemed more like confusion with the extension, until September 30, of free importation for private and non-commercial purposes of food, toiletries and medications.

The same official also recognized that “putting caps on these products won’t solve the problems of the population, because in the end they’re still expensive and not affordable for the majority,” even though the measure was taken “to prevent prices from continuing to rise.”

In the Central Havana MSMEs, chicken is more than double what it is in Plaza de la Revolución / 14ymedio

Thursday’s resolution was harshly criticized by economists such as Pedro Monreal, who pointed out that its impact, even if it works, would be very limited. Retail sales in the private sector account for just 4.1% of those of the country as a whole, said the specialist, and although it is not known what part might affect the state sector, the percentage is too trivial to have any kind of significant consequence.

“In addition to the fact that the savings for the State won’t be very big, by limiting the profit rate of non-state sales acquired by state entities, experience indicates that price caps are not effective in reducing inflation,” the expert said.

The Cuban economist insisted that the way to contain inflation, which has not stopped growing exponentially since the entry into force of the so-called Ordering Task* (2021), is to reduce expenses.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Journalist Whose Visa Was Withdrawn by Noboa’s Government Leaves Ecuador

Alondra Santiago was harshly criticised for using the Ecuadorian national anthem to make a parody of the president’s administration.

Alondra Santiago, in one of the videos of her channel, ’Ingobernables’ / YouTube/ Screen capture

14ymedio, Quito, 28 June 2024 — Cuban journalist and actress Alondra Santiago left Ecuador on Friday, where she has lived for nearly 20 years, after the government of President Daniel Noboa withdrew her visa. The decision has been criticised as an attack on freedom of expression against a journalist who is critical of the government.

Noboa’s administration informed Santiago on Tuesday that it was withdrawing her permanent residency visa on the grounds of alleged acts against national security, which was based on a “secret report” prepared by the intelligence centre.

Through her talk show Ingobernables, which is broadcast on social networks and has a wide audience, Santiago had been critical of Noboa and in the last elections had expressed her sympathy for Luisa González, the candidate of Correísmo.

Weeks ago she was harshly criticised for using the Ecuadorian national anthem to make a parody of President Noboa’s administration.

In the last few hours I have taken the difficult decision to leave my country: Ecuador. And I’m not leaving deported, I’m leaving legally first.

In fact, the government broadcast the national anthem in a national chain (message to the nation) through the media on the same Tuesday that the decision was made known, with the previous phrase “out of respect for the country”. continue reading

In a video published on social networks by her lawyer Carlos Soria, Santiago explained that she had taken the decision to leave the country before the government deported her and while waiting for the legal actions presented by her lawyers to take effect and for her to be able to return to the country. The lawyer, who did not give details of the journalist’s destination, stated that she left “on an invitation to a forum” and that her return “is in the hands of a judge”.

“In the last few hours I have taken the difficult decision to leave my country: Ecuador. And I am not leaving deported, I am leaving legally, because I will not be part of the show that the government is putting on. I will not be part of the smokescreen they are putting up to cover up their incompetence and violence against the people,” said Santiago.

“In this last week I have seen the face of authoritarianism and violence first hand. They want to silence me. Today my physical, emotional and mental integrity is compromised. Today my life is in danger because of an abuser of power”, she added, referring to the head of state.

The 33-year-old journalist said that people close to her and who “know the president very well” had asked her to put herself in a safe place.

“Because he will not stop until he stops my voice. Today it is a deportation because I spoke out, because a woman journalist told him the truth, because a song annoyed him, because I exposed his incompetence, violence and arbitrariness”, she denounced.

“What will tomorrow be? What else will they invent? What means and people will they use for their ends? Although I fully trust that Justice will rule in favour of truth, law and freedom, I do not trust a government that is capable of manipulating information and inventing it to take me away from the life I have built in Ecuador for nineteen years,” she added.

Santiago described Noboa as a “democratic accident” and a “cardboard president” and said she would return to Ecuador, but until then she would continue to speak out. “Nothing and no one is going to stop my voice or my journalistic exercise,” she concluded.

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) on Wednesday expressed its concern about this and its president, Roberto Rock, said that “it is necessary that, given the lack of precision about the reasons for the decision, the government explain clearly whether or not the revocation of the visa is related to the criticisms made by the journalist”.

For its part, the Ecuadorian press freedom organisation Fundamedios said that “this act constitutes an abusive use of state power and violates freedom of expression”.

The Alianza de Organizaciones por los Derechos Humanos de Ecuador (Alliance of Human Rights Organisations of Ecuador) also pointed out that this episode demonstrates an arbitrary exercise of power.

In March, Noboa pledged to guarantee freedom of the press and freedom of expression in his country by signing the Chapultepec and Salta declarations after a meeting with an international IAPA delegation at the Carondelet presidential palace in Quito.

Translated by GH

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Russia Will Train Cuban Firefighters, Police and Lawyers

The certification of firefighting engineers includes training to operate drones in emergency situations

Cubans were taught about “determination, loyalty to duty and the willingness to help,” Russian authorities said. / Prensa Latina

14ymedio, Havana, 1 July 2024 — Relations between Russia and Cuba seem to return more and more to the old years of the Soviet Union, with the training of professionals from the Island in the Eurasian country. This Saturday, it was announced that a group of Cubans have just graduated as fire protection engineers.

According to Prensa Latina, the qualification includes a certification to operate drones in emergency situations. In the same vein is the announcement made by the Cuban Minister of Justice, Oscar Manuel Silvera Martínez, who last week was on an official visit to Moscow and said that Cuban police and lawyers will be trained in Russian universities.

The training of lawyers and police, the minister said, after participating in the XII International Legal Forum that took place in St. Petersburg between June 26 and 28, is part of the memorandum of understanding signed last year between the two countries. It aims to promote the development of cooperation in the field of education.

“Our Cubans will be trained in police work by you,” the minister said during his visit to Russia last week

“Police and lawyers from Cuba will be trained in Russia. This is very important to strengthen the relationships between us,” Silvera Martínez stressed, without providing more details. “Our Cubans will be trained in police work by you, and they will also learn about jurisprudence in your universities.” continue reading

The Academy of State Firefighters Service, which belongs to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, was, for five years, the institution in charge of training the 18 young Cubans who graduated as firefighters this weekend. Among the subjects taught were “theory, practice and application of experiments both in laboratories and in on-site exercises.”

Most notable among what was instilled by the Government of Vladimir Putin in this group of Cubans is the “determination, loyalty to duty and the willingness to help,” explained the director of the State Firefighters Academy, Vyacheslav Butko, who reiterated in allusion to the Cuban students that “the doors of the university will be open.”

In addition to graduating as firefighters and drone pilots for work in emergency situations, Cubans received a Russian-Spanish dictionary of words related to their specialty, as reported to the Cuban news agency by Arnaldo Bombino, who recently graduated as a lieutenant.

Cooperation between Cuba and Russia on the matter of firefighting has been a constant in recent years. For example, the Russians gave advice to the regime in the case of the Matanzas supertanker fire in August 2022, and donated fire trucks a few months later (in December 2023) .

Since Russia invaded Ukraine and was rejected by most of the international community, the old relationship between Moscow and Havana has been revitalized. This has included a series of exchanges, including the sending of oil tankers to the Island in the midst of an energy crisis aggravated by the summer, as well as the visit of a naval flotilla headed by a Russian nuclear submarine this month.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Cuban Javelin Thrower Yulenmis Aguilar Wins a Gold Medal for Spain

The athlete had a record of 59.85 meters prior to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Yulenmis Aguilar showing the gold medal she won for Spain / Instagram/yulenmis_aguilar

14ymedio, Havana, 2 July 2024 — Yulenmis Aguilar, the Cuban javelin thrower won a resounding victory in the Spanish Championship with a throw of 59.85 meters, which places her as the main figure for Spain in that specialty and shows that she is in “good shape for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024,” according to Swing Completo.

Aguilar began her participation this Sunday with a throw of 50.12 meters. Her rivals, Carmen Sánchez, who was in second position, recorded a throw of 51.86 meters, while Enya Carretero was in third place with 51.43 meters.

On April 10, the athlete received the “naturalization letter” in the Council of Ministers of the Moncloa Palace, a procedure that began at the end of 2022, opening the possibility for her to represent Spain at the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

The double-champion (2015, 2017) Cuban javelin thrower arrived in Spain at the end of December 2020

Since Aguilar’s naturalization was confirmed, the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) contacted World Athletics – the governing body of athletics – to make the change of nationality for the athlete to be part of its delegation. continue reading

In the other four competitions of 2024, except for the Ibero-American Rally in Huelva, where she was fourth, Aguilar won the Iberdrola League of clubs twice (60.68 and 56.21) and the José Luis Hernández Memorial in Pamplona (56.52).

The double-champion (2015, 2017) Cuban javelin thrower arrived in Spain at the end of December 2020.

Since she has been in Spain, Aguilar has had her eyes set on Paris. “My room for improvement is incredible,” she told the newspaper Relevo at the beginning of this year. “I have been watching the throws with my coach and there is a possible improvement of 30%, at least.”

Aguilar was ignored by the Cuban national team in 2018. That was the “prize” she received after obtaining the bronze medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Colombia. The authorities simply told her that “they weren’t counting on her for the next season.”

“I didn’t want to know anything about the sport. I went into a depression and began to gain a lot of weight”

The athlete’s sports life became “an ordeal” in which the injuries she had on her knees, shoulders and elbows pushed her to retire for five months. “I didn’t want to know anything about the sport. I went into a depression and began to gain a lot of weight,” she told La Voz de Galicia.

The Cuban contacted coach Raimundo Fernández, who directs the Escuela de Lanzadores de A Coruña and traveled to Spain. “Her first six months here were an ordeal of physiotherapists, doctors and rehabilitators,” Fernández stressed.

The athlete recovered and last year set a record for Spain in the javelin throw with 64.17 meters, which placed her as sixth in the world ranking of the discipline. Aguilar, 27, has been living in Galicia since 2020, where she arrived with a work permit.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Prosecution: The Case of Sulmira Martínez Pérez / CUBALEX

Cubalex, 21 June 2024 — Sulmira Martínez Pérez could face a ten-year prison sentence, according to the provisional findings of the Prosecutor’s Office, for expressing herself on social media against the Cuban regime and advocating peaceful protest.

Prosecutor Edward Roberts Campbell has requested a combined sentence of ten years’ imprisonment for the 22-year-old, currently held in the Western Women’s Prison known as El Guatao in Havana.

Does it adhere to the principles of legality and fairness?

The legal characterisation offered by Prosecutor Edward Robert Campbell to the Chamber for Crimes against State Security of the People’s Provincial Court of Havana, in the second of his provisional conclusions presented on 24 April 2024, is incorrect. The legal grounds for this assertion are set out below:

The prosecutor has legally classified the facts described in the first of his provisional conclusions as constituting the crimes of Contempt (Articles 185.1 and 2) and Against Constitutional Order (Article 119.3 in relation to 119.1) of the Criminal Code (Law 151/2022). In this regard, he said:

“(With respect to acts committed before the entry into force of Law 151. It is integrated into the offence provided for in Article 99 of Law 62, which has the same sanctioning framework)”.

The prosecutor proposed, and the court accepted, a legal position that violates the principle that criminal laws cannot be applied retroactively. This principle has an exception: it can only be applied retroactively when the law is more favourable to the accused person.

In determining which law is more favourable, the court must consider which law produces the more beneficial result for the accused person, objectively assessing the facts of the case and the laws in force at the time of the decision. It is not a matter of comparing individual provisions of the two laws, but of assessing their entire content, including the penalty, the elements of the offence and the aggravating circumstances of criminal liability. For example, if in the specific case it is possible to apply a penalty of limitation of liberty or correctional work without detention, the current Penal Code would be more favourable than the repealed one, even if it provides for harsher penalties in other respects.

The court must consider both theoretically co-existing laws, assessing which one is more applicable to the particular case, and not only which one is in force.

How should the court proceed in this case?

1. Hypothetically apply the criminal law in force at the time the crime was committed and subsequently do the same with the law in force at the time of the trial.

2. Compare possible outcomes and choose the one that is more favourable to the accused person.

3. The comparative examination should conclude with the choice of one of the two laws, the old or the new one.

It is wrong to apply provisions of both laws simultaneously, as this creates a new law made to suit the prosecutor, whose aim is to impose harsher sanctions to punish dissent, censor free speech and restrict the right to protest.

Conclusions

Sulmira, like everyone else in Cuba, is unable to exercise her right to peaceful demonstration, despite the fact that this right is enshrined in article 56 of the Constitution of the Republic. The main reason is that the Cuban government, despite its legislative promise, has not enacted a supporting law that would allow the full exercise of this fundamental right.

This omission allows the criminalisation of any citizen action of criticism, protest, disagreement and opposition to the authorities, who are responsible for the economic crisis, violence and total decadence that the island is experiencing today.

The post La acusación fiscal: El caso de Sulmira Martínez Pérez appeared first on Cubalex.

Translated by GH

Human Rights in Crisis and the Closure of Civic Space in Cuba / CUBALEX

Cubalex, 20 June 2024– Latin America faces serious human rights challenges, including social crises, closure of civic space, criminalisation of protests, persecution of journalists, repression, intimidation and harassment of critical voices that differ from or oppose power structures. These issues, among others, are evidence of a regional emergency.

In this context, and in the framework of the 54th General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Latin American Human Rights Consortium (HRC) is convening the event “Human Rights as a Pillar of Hemispheric Security in the Americas”, to be held on 26 June in Asunción, Paraguay.

At the meeting, participants will analyse in depth the social, political and economic crises affecting several countries in the region, with a particular focus on Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Cubalex will present the report “Closure of civic space in Cuba”, which analyses how the state has implemented a systematic mechanism of harassment against civil society, with the aim of preventing the active participation of citizens in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the country.

See details of the Cubalex report.

The post Derechos Humanos en crisis y cierre del espacio cívico en Cuba appeared first on Cubalex.

Translated by GH

Three Baseball Players Who Left Cuba Guarantee Their Stay in the U.S. Major Leagues

Alexander Valiente was hired by the Toronto Blue Jays, while Reykelly Rubi received an opportunity with an Orioles affiliate.

Reykelly Rubi at the time of signing his contract with the Orioles / X/@francysromeroFR

14ymedio, Havana, 28 June 2024 — The baseball players Alexander Valiente and Reykelly Rubi, who left Cuba in search of a better future, have reached initial agreements with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles, respectively. With them are 21 athletes from the Island who have been “hired in the current international period” by Major League teams in the United States, reported journalist Francys Romero.

The Canadian team guaranteed Valiente, 21, a bonus of $75,000 to secure his signing. The contract will be made official on January 15, 2025. This young man was part of the Cuban U-23 team; in 2023 he asked for his leave. “I’ve decided not to play anymore for now. Please don’t ask me for an explanation,” he said at the time.

The Canadian team guaranteed Valiente, 21, a bonus of $75,000 to secure his signing

Romero attributes the departure of these athletes to the fact that baseball on the Island has become “uneven, old and without an audience.” He regrets that what used to be a game “full of brilliance now seems to be an old Development League compared to the world talent.” continue reading

Por la Goma, a publication specializing in the sport, which is considered a cultural heritage on the Island, reported last year that the loss of athletes was occurring “daily.” The massive abandonment of players is influenced by the issues of “quality [of life], remuneration and inflation.”

This Wednesday, Reykelly Rubi, who left the Island at the age of 14, received an opportunity with an Orioles affiliate. At age 18 and after a period of training at the Yuan Pino Academy in the Dominican Republic, he is considered by the talent scouts as an “intriguing arm.”

“His curveball was evaluated above the average [between 88 and 90 miles per hour], with an acceptable turning speed, which makes him a promising pitcher for the future of the Baltimore Orioles,” published the magazine Swing Completo.

This week, the 26-year-old Yosver Zulueta’s debut with the Cincinnati Reds also materialized. The athlete from Villa Clara left Cuba in October 2018. After signing with Toronto in 2019 for a million dollars, he had to undergo surgery for a knee injury that kept him away from the playing field for a year.

This week, the debut of 26-year-old Yosver Zulueta with the Cincinnati Reds also materialized

In 2022, he passed through “all levels of the Minor Leagues” to resume the pace of the game, Romero said. “In the winter of 2023 he went to the Dominican Republic with the Leones del Escogido and had a positive experience.”

Last Tuesday Zulueta debuted as part of the Cincinnati team in the Major Leagues with three strikeouts. “He was a bit nervous at first but then showed his weapons: a straight that reached 99 miles per hour and a slider (a throw that drops the ball as it approaches the batter) of 91 miles per hour.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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