Translating Cuba

The Unforgettable Journey of Two Havana Women in Search of a Beach

At almost one thirty in the afternoon, Arlena and Carolina finally get their precious sun loungers in front of the Atlántico hotel, and a menu with meals for 3,000 pesos

The rickety train arrives when there are just a few minutes left before the appointed time / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 4 August 2024 — At 1:20 in the afternoon, Arlena was putting her bag on a lounge chair on the beach at Santa María, west of Guanabo. “I’m already in place”, she exclaimed with relief, not knowing that she would still have to wait for the moment she had been looking forward to since 8:40, since she arrived at the Havana train station. It was a private beach where only hotel guests could stay. They set off again.

The Cuban authorities announced at the beginning of July the restoration of the service of this train that leads, for a modest 35 pesos price, to the beaches of the East of Havana during an unforgettable trip of an hour and a half for the scant 25 kilometers that separate the two locations.

Arlena and Carolina decided to spend their first day of vacation on the sea shore this Wednesday, although to do so they had to take a train that, from around the station between Egido and Arsenal, promised to be what it is: a trip suitable only for the most common classes. About 50 people were hanging around the platform, where the smartest ones were trying to do business, as always.

About 50 people were hanging around the platform, where the smartest people were trying to do business, as always / 14ymedio

When the two women arrived at the platform, after a long walk from Luyanó, without a taxi in sight, there was already a cake seller on a bicycle selling the cakes for 70 pesos a piece, and an inflationary peanut vendor, who had gone from charging one peso for a cone to 10. There was also a coffee stand to bravely face the morning, and cigarettes for 400 pesos, although a worker from the Railway Union was giving a warning before the continue reading

Beast arrived: drinking alcohol or smoking is strictly prohibited, under penalty of a fine of 2,000 to 5,000 pesos.

The rickety train arrived just a few minutes before the appointed time. Families with children heading to the beach and passengers heading to Guanabo, as a less recreational destination, are milling around, leaving behind the kilos of garbage that pile up next to the station.

About 50 people were hanging around the platform, where the most astute were trying to do business, as always / 14ymedio

The interior view is not that more encouraging. Looking down, you see torn seats; looking up, you see torn-off roofs in all the carriages. The hard plastic seats are uncomfortable for Carolina, who has been suffering from pain in one leg for weeks, so the two of them change carriages, and settle on the third, which has more comfortable seats. Soon after, they will no longer be able to choose.

After a stop in Guanabacoa and another in Cambute, the train is more than full and the passengers resign themselves to standing among the incessant clatter and noise that serve as a holiday soundtrack.

The cost of the ticket is 35 pesos to the beaches of eastern Havana on a trip of one and a half hours / 14ymedio

“This is going to end up like the trains in India, with people on the roof,” jokes one passenger. Although there are two policemen in the third carriage, discipline is set aside and several people smoke openly, while out the window all you can see is grass everywhere, fields of sweet potatoes and some isolated wooden huts. As Guanabo approaches, a “rare bird” is spotted: cattle.

It’s after 10:40 and the hardest part of the journey is finally over. Or so Arlene and Carolina think, as they walk through the town of Guanabo towards the west, towards the beaches.

When the beach comes into view, businesses multiply, with their escalating prices in sight / 14ymedio

When the beach comes into view, businesses multiply, with their escalating prices in sight. Mamoncillos (Spanish limes) at 100 pesos, pizzas at 170, beer and malt at 200… but the kilometers take their toll on the couple, who are looking for a beach without trash to settle down on, so they end up renting a horse-drawn carriage to smooth out the distance.

600 pesos later, when everything seemed to be going better, there was still one more problem to overcome when the horse-drawn carriage breaks down. “It’s 12 o’clock and I still haven’t placed my butt on the beach,” she laments. An hour later, they barely reached the promised beach.

The miles are taking their toll on the couple, who are looking to settle down on a beach without trash / 14ymedio

Carolina and Arlena sit on a lounge chair in front of Santa María Beach hours after leaving Havana, but their joy doesn’t last a minute, because they are in the private area and only hotel guests have access to those amenities, just like the water bikes and all the good things they see, so it’s time to pack up again and start walking.

At almost 1:30 in the afternoon, our central characters finally get their precious sun loungers in front of the Hotel Atlántico, and a menu with meals for 3,000 pesos. Two pizzas and a few beers make the long day easier. A line separates the shiny beds of the hotel guests from Carolina and Arlena’s rickety ones, who, at around 2 in the afternoon, finally take their first dip.

A line separates the shiny beds of the hotel guests from Carolina and Arlena’s rickety ones. At around 2 in the afternoon, they finally take their first dip / 14ymedio

Before 3 o’clock, they are already packing their things for the trip back to Havana. “Are you going to take the train back?” asks a neighbor lying on a sun lounger. “No way!” Carolina is indignant. And they walk away until they catch an improvised taxi that takes them to Santos Suárez.

Translated by Norma Whiting

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Canada Publishes an Alert About Dengue Fever in Cuba, ‘Which Can Be Deadly’

The main tourist market on the Island registers a slight drop this year after two previous warnings

Tourists on Obispo Street, in Old Havana (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 1 September 2024 — For the third time in less than a year, the Government of Canada has published a warning, now about the increase in dengue fever, targeting its nationals traveling to Cuba.

The two previous alerts – about the increase in violence and the shortage of basic necessities – had little effect on the arrival of Canadian tourists. Although there was a slight reduction compared to 2023, Canada remains the leading supplier of tourists to Cuba, accounting for 42% of the 1,463,097 travelers who entered the Island in the first half of this year.

In the statement, published on August 26, the authorities explained that “dengue fever is a risk for travelers” and, in some cases, leads to a serious state in the patient, “which can be fatal.” This third alert could have a more powerful deterrent effect than the previous ones and further harm the tourism sector, which has not recovered from the disaster caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Canadian government failed to include the Oropouche virus in its risk assessment.

The authorities state that “dengue is a risk for travelers” and, in some cases, leads to a serious state in the patient, “which can be fatal”

The official Cuban figures up to August indicated more than 400 infected with Oropouche in the country. The authorities then recognized that the virus had ceased to “present itself exclusively in rural areas” and mainly affected the population of the cities, “causing a significant increase in the number of cases.” However, according to unofficial data, thousands of patients do not declare their illness, and 14ymedio verified that in Santiago de Cuba alone, where the first cases were reported, dozens of people suffered from the virus. continue reading

Both dengue and Oropouche have been increasing in the number of infections in the country. The reason, in addition to the hot summer and the increase in the presence of mosquitoes and jejenes (gnats), is that there are plenty of foci of contagion in the cities, in particular the mountains of garbage.

It was the US government that gave the alert about the presence of Oropouche in Cuba, and last month it identified 21 people affected on their return from the Island, three of whom had to be hospitalized.

These 21 cases were counted as of August 16, and in most of them those diagnosed showed symptoms between the months of May and July, without any deaths being recorded, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Both dengue and Oropouche have been increasing in the number of infections in the country

Cuba, as a tourist destination, has been on red alert since last October after Ottawa’s warnings, when it advised caution in traveling to the island due to the “scarcity of basic necessities, including food, medicines and fuel.”

In May, the Canadian government stressed the increase in violence, assaults and financial scams, including credit card fraud and the risks associated with ATMs which frequently run out of cash.

Canadian authorities also reported that the Cuban health care infrastructure is critically deficient, with a marked lack of medicines, supplies and equipment, aggravated by insufficient hygiene practices and slow responses to emergencies.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Putrefaction of Castroism

Poverty is everywhere, along with fanatical sectarianism, from which sexual preferences does not escape

Photo of Rodríguez Street in Havana /14ymedio

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 1 September 2024 — Castro’s totalitarianism is immersed in a process of self-demolition regardless of acts against its opponents. The social crisis is very profound, consistent with the ocean of lies and myths on which he built his abusive fiction.

The population’s knowledge of the reality weakens social control and increases the lack of trust in the authorities. People are realizing that they have been deceived and manipulated, which does not satisfy anyone.

For decades, the vast majority of Cubans have suffered political repression; more than half a million citizens have passed through prison with sentences of between one day and 30 years. Thousands of people have been executed by firing squad.

The misery has kept its distance only from the elites. Poverty is everywhere, with the addition of a fanatical sectarianism, from which sexual preferences did not escape.

People are realizing that they have been deceived and manipulated, a reality that does not satisfy anyone

However, the regime, through surveillance and repression, hid everything that could damage the image of peace and tranquility that it sought to present to both Cubans and foreigners, including the social problems.

They did it so well that a popular song in which “Lola” was murdered at three in the afternoon, an atrocious femicide I would say today, disappeared from the radio waves, as did the red chronicles of the press media. continue reading

It was shocking: the media stopped reporting on weddings, baptisms and parties, in addition to murders and street fights, as if the endangered social class was responsible for the mess. Even more, rumors — “las bolas” [the balls] as we called them — were extinguished because they were misinformation, and with that accusation you could end up in prison.

Unfortunately, there was no lack of subjects who believed the stories, since they collaborated in the gestation and development of a complicit silence that hid political abuses and social injustices.

The Castros, by decree, made the public believe that in their paradise there was no domestic violence, no robberies and, even less so, murders, except those that the rulers themselves committed by executing thousands of their citizens for conspiring against them.

Even more, rumors, “las bolas” [the balls] as we called them, were extinguished because they were disinformation, and with that accusation you could end up in prison

It is true that violence in any of its expressions is present in every society. However, in Cuba, as part of the great farce that has been the totalitarian dictatorship, only the most immediate neighbors of the tragedy know the facts.

However, the exaggerated control that the totalitarian system imposed on everything related to information during the last 65 years is breaking at the political and social level, a result that will undoubtedly negatively affect its survival.

The Castro slogan of “Homeland or Death,” as the writer Jose Antonio Albertini points out, was useful for the narrative of a threatened homeland, but the supporters of totalitarianism realize that they no longer have a homeland and that only the dead and the prisoners remain.

The breaking of silence is not the will of the autocrats, but thanks to a new generation of journalists, very different from many of their peers in the early days of totalitarianism, who were silent out of fear or simply believed in the proposals of the false redeemer, the silence has been broken.

It is important and fair to recognize the risks run by those who strive to report from behind the walls of Castroism. They have chosen a difficult path, full of danger, in which the only sure compensation is jail and the satisfaction of fulfilling a duty.

It is an indisputable truth that social tension throughout the country is increasing

If political censorship was effective, social censorship has been even more so. I remember that the press, from time to time, reported a shooting or the capture of a group opposed to the dictatorship. On the other hand, it never reported a murder.

It is an indisputable truth that social tension throughout the country is increasing. Disagreements between neighbors sometimes can end in murder, and, as if that were not enough, social insecurity and a lack of police protection have encouraged robberies with homicides, as happened recently in the town of Ceballos, in Ciego de Ávila.

Social disintegration in Cuba affects everybody and is the sole responsibility of present and past authorities. The Island is an erupting volcano, and, hopefully, the explosion will be political and not social.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Spain Invites Cuban Players To Join Its Team in the Baseball Classic

The Federation of Professional Baseball Players of Cuba launched a call for Cubans who want to play in the World Classic with Spain / Fepcub

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 1 September 2024 — Spain, looking for a ticket to the 2026 Baseball Classic, opened the doors to Cuban players who wish to join its team. The invitation was released this Saturday through the Federation of Professional Baseball Players of Cuba (Fepcube) and “is open to any eligible athlete,” says the Instagram post.

Cubans with the opportunity to play for Spain will be those who meet any of these requirements: “have a Spanish passport, have a Spanish father or mother, be born in Spain or permanently resident in the European country.”

They must also fill out the corresponding application before September 16, the day on which Spain will present a list of 50 athletes, from which it will define the national team that will compete for one of the four tickets available to participate in the Baseball Classic, which will be played simultaneously in the United States, Japan and Puerto Rico. Cuba is located in group A, along with Puerto Rico, Canada, Panama and one more rival to be defined.

The Spanish national team has played two qualifying phases, the first in 2012, which gave it access to the 2013 World Classic, and later in 2016, where it was eliminated. continue reading

The Cuban team that won a children’s tournament in the Dominican Republic / Jit

The promotion of Fepcube generated controversy among users on social networks, who questioned the organization for moving away from its initial objective, which is the formation of a team of exiles and not to contribute to the selection of another country. The organization has not offered a position on this point.

It is not the first time that Spain has incorporated Cuban players into a national team. The current European champion team was formed in 2023 with athletes from the Island. The payroll included pitcher Pablo Guillén and catcher Omar Hernández, who ended up being the event’s leader in home runs and scored runs. Also on the team were pitchers Rogelio Armenteros and Carlos Sierra, fielder Frank Hernández and bench coach Néstor Pérez.

Meanwhile, on the Island, the official media Jit highlighted the triumph of the U-12 children’s team in the tournament that took place at the stadium of the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center in the Dominican Republic, according to Play-Off Magazine.

In the final game, Cuba defeated Venezuela 9-2 and was proclaimed the tournament champion. The official journalist, Boris Luis Cabrera, specified that Asnel Torres and Alfredo Despaigne were recognized with the award for the Most Valuable Player in the final.

The tournament served as preparation for the Cuban team, which on October 19 will take part in the Pan American Championship played in Panama. In this event, three tickets will be at stake for the World Cup in 2025, which will also be based in Panama.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexico Receives Cuban Minister of Health and a New Group of 200 Doctors From the Island

1,550 of the 5,000 doctors hired by the López Obrador government have already arrived.

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

14ymedio, Mexico City, 23 August 2024 — the arrival, on Wednesday, of some 200 Cuban doctors at Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA), there are now almost 600 specialists from the island sent to Mexico in just 20 days. Two similar groups of 200 and 199, respectively, landed on August 2nd and 8th.

The doctors are met at the air terminal by diplomatic personnel and agents of the National Migration Institute. Afterwards, they are transported in official vehicles to Mexico City, from where they depart to other parts of the country.

According to the agreements signed between the two countries, the Cubans have been hired by the Andrés Manuel López Obrador Administration to fill positions in rural hospitals. These groups that arrived in August will join the 950 doctors that have arrived in the country since 2022, a figure that Mexico expects will reach 5,000, following the extension of the bilateral collaboration agreement, announced at the end of July. continue reading

None of the Mexican authorities made a statement on the matter or officially announced their meeting with the Cuban envoy.

The arrival of the specialists coincided with the Cuban Minister of Public Health, José Angel Portal Miranda’s visit to Mexico. The official met with his Mexican counterpart, Jorge Alcocer, and although a statement issued by the Cuban ministry reported the meeting, aimed at “strengthening collaboration in health matters”, the Mexican media have not reported the trip.

Alcocer is the highest-ranking official to receive Portal Miranda, albeit in a discreet way, a month before President López Obrador hands over power to Claudia Sheinbaum. He was also received at the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) by Alejandro Calderón Alipi, general director of Health Services of IMSS-Bienestar, which is the institution taking in all the Cuban doctors sent to Mexico from 2022.

None of the Mexican authorities made any statement on the matter or officially announced their meeting with the island’s envoy. On the other hand, the Ministry of Public Health assures in its statement that in the meeting with Alcocer, they evaluated the progress of the collaboration in health matters, “which in the last period of work has been strengthened, consolidated and increased, reaching not only the health care area but also the teaching and regulatory field”.

Portal Miranda’s stay has gone by without raising much attention in the Mexican media.

In the same statement, they brag about the actions they have carried out “jointly”, without mentioning any of them, and assure that “the results that have been achieved” are proof of the will to continue working to “promote cooperation in health in different areas”, in spite of “obstacles and limitations”, which they did not provide in detail either.

Cuba’s ambassador to Mexico, Marcos Rodriguez, also alluded in a tweet to talks on the “cooperation of medical specialists” and the “production of medications and shared interests”.

In other activities, Portal Miranda participated in the XI Pan American Conference for the Harmonization of Pharmaceutical Regulation (CPARF), where he ratified Cuba’s “willingness” to “put at the service of the Pan American Health Organization and all the countries of the region, its technical capabilities and experience in the production of medications, biotechnological products and vaccines”.

In his speech, from the central building of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, which served as the venue for the meeting, Portal Miranda said that on the island “in the face of external limitations”, they have learned that the most secure resources they can have are those they are capable of producing on their own.

These claims about the self-sufficiency of medications conflict with the shortage of basic medications on the island, which has already reached a deficit of up to 70%, according to the regime’s own acknowledgement last July.

Even so, his words were reflected in the official press, such as Cubadebate, which on Wednesday stressed that the region must “move out of the technical field and reach public policies that promote regional cooperation and support the right to health for all”.

Statements on the self-sufficiency of medications conflict with the shortage of basic medicines on the Island.

What is a fact is that the rapprochement with the Island shown by the López Obrador Administration, which has included oil deliveries, especially with the crisis unleashed after the elections in Venezuela, will continue with his successor.

Translated by LAR

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The Cartoonists From ‘Mazzantini’ Save August From Editorial Lethargy

The online magazine has had a lot of work since Nicolás Maduro refused to leave Miraflores on July 28 / Alen Lauzán / Mazzantini

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 31 August 2024 — In Cuba there is no more money, even for Martí. It is true that the cult of the man Cubans call ’the Apostle’ in his land always had something of alms, and there was no tribute – from the Civic Square to Martí Notebooks – that did not require passing the hat to the battered popular pocket. But Castroism, or this limbo without a label that came later, always has had its own imprint on misery.

No one forgets the famous 28 volumes of Complete Works with a prologue by Juan Marinello that, in some Cuban houses of worship, still accumulate dust. It was even said that there was a volume 29, the prophetic volume, censored for talking about Fidel, communism, computer science, reorganization and other futuristic subjects. Less memorable – for how little it lasted in bookstores – are the critical editions that, if we pay attention to what the professional martyrologist Marlene Vázquez says, will remain eternally incomplete.

With prose in the style of Martí, the imitation of Martí is always an apostolic parody – Vázquez says that “at the moment, the directors of the Center for Studies on Martí is looking for sources of financing for the printing of volumes 30, 31 and 32, now finished.” And he promises that, “as usual, those who contribute will be recognized on the credits page of the corresponding volume.”

It was even said that there was a volume 29, the prophetic volume, censored for talking about Fidel, communism, computer science, reorganization and other futuristic subjects

Vázquez does not say if he expects dollars, euros or the humble pesos with the face of the Apostle. He limits himself to reminding the Government of the propaganda service they could offer: “In the present, in the midst of the loss of values that we are experiencing, and willing to win it by ideas, that great work is very useful.” This sample of the art of seduction appeared in Cubadebate, but any Cuban knows that it won’t come to anything, much less so in dollars.

In the antipodes of the mendicant Center for Martí Studies is the Havana Historian’s Office. This is demonstrated by the resurrection, after years of lethargy, of Ediciones Boloña, one of the projects that the current deputy director, Perla Rosales, most quickly dismantled, after the death of Historian Eusebio Leal. Reinvented and with money, Bologna publishes in an expensive volume the classic, “La Habana. Apuntes históricos (Historical Notes),” by Emilio Roig.

The presentation was attended by Rosales and the entire general staff – the military metaphor is not exaggerated – of the Office. The “Notes” of Roig, the old republican historian whom Castroism did everything possible to forget, had not been published since the 1960s.

On the decline, the publication of Cuban books in exile also seems to be on a lethargic holiday – it happened in January, with almost no titles and very few that were outstanding. The bad streak broke with a book of drawings and notes, “Cartografía Personal (Personal Cartography),” by Jorge Pantoja. The artist, born in Havana, composes the book that every Cuban should be making: an anthology of his school notebooks, correspondence with his mother and doodles.

The publication of Cuban books in exile also seems to be on a lethargic holiday

Personal cartography is a return to Pantoja’s childhood brought to light, the chronicle of the birth of his imagination. It raises the tension between feeling and doctrine, the precocious and the unknown, the rigid and the adventurous. In the end, the trajectory described is the foundation of his own experience as a creator, which is found in those remote notes.

The return to mythology – one of his favorite themes – defines Roberto Méndez’s new book of poems, “Descenso de Alcestes” (The Descent of Alcistis), (Casa Vacía). With a whole arsenal of books in tow, Méndez now summons Hercules and Orpheus, who traveled to hell and returned, and Mozart, who faced death but did not return.

The ones who do not rest – the real cartoonist never does – are the cartoonists of Mazzantini.* The “magazine of bulls, goats and horns, genetic or hybridized” has had a lot of work since Nicolás Maduro refused to leave Miraflores on July 28. The cover of number 52 shows the dictator’s floating head in a dystopian museum of old tyrants. Puzzled, Maduro is Castro’s neighbor, who looks at him crosseyed.

The metamorphosis of the Grand Master Mason Mario Urquía Carreño into a major of the Ministry of the Interior, the stampede of leaders, the blunders of Cuban Television and the pranks of State Security complete the edition. And at the end, a quote from Manuel Marrero that could well be the government’s response to Marlene Vázquez’s request for money: “We never promise our people,” says the chubby prime minister, “what we know we won’t be able to give.”

*Translator’s note: Mazzantini was a bullfighter, considered “muy guapo,” which means he was very courageous, like the subversive cartoonists of the magazine.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Neither Military Coup Nor Revolution, Elections

We came to realize that Fidel Castro’s cynicism and evil knew no limits. Nevertheless, a large sector of the population glorified him.

Seventy-one years after the siege of the Moncada Baracks and sixty-five years after the triumph of the revolution, Castro’s legacy has little to show for itself / Prensa Latina

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 28 July 2024 — I have friends who defend the military coup of 10 March 1952, led by General Fulgencio Batista. Others do the same with Fidel Castro’s attack on the Moncada Barracks on the 26th of July 1953. The two dates had tragic consequences for the Cuban nation, as anyone with even a passing awareness of the country’s history can attest.

As I see it, there is no historical justification whatsoever for the military coup while the actions of the 26th of July can be viewed as an act of revenge or retaliation for the disruption of the nation’s democratic processes.

Both events must be seen not as isolated events but as the main causes and consequences of the island’s ongoing drama, though the catastrophic results of the ultimate victory of the man who led the attack on the barracks have acquired a life of their own due to the magnitude of the event.

Batista had tasted power and enjoyed it while Castro, it seems, was willing to go all out for it

None of the participants in these unfortunate events could have foreseen what would happen, not even the main protagonists. Batista had tasted power and enjoyed it while Castro, it seems, was willing to go all out on a personal quest that would cast him as the righteous hero who could do anything and overcome everything. Someone for whom defeat, were it to come, would serve as just another step in his ascent. continue reading

We came to realize that Fidel Castro’s cynicism and evil knew no limits. Nevertheless, a large sector of the population glorified him in part due to our tendency to value heroism over good intentions.

When facing danger, he sought protection from the church, which years later he tried to destroy. At his trial, he took full advantage of the the judicial process. Speaking in his own defense, he portrayed himself as an imprisoned but not defeated hero, which suddenly put him on a par with the nation’s most prominent political leaders. His imprisonment and the deaths he caused were his elevator to fame.

Obviously, he was convinced that it was easier to take up arms than to participate in a contested election in which the loser would walk away ignominiously while the winner would have to periodically bend to popular will.

The new political conditions in the country provided the breeding ground for Castro to reach dimensions that even his closest associates could never have imagined. His boundless ambition, tenacity, keen sense of timing, characteristic audacity, absolute lack of loyalty to the commitments he made and political talents grew and matured to such an extent that he demanded the leadership position that he himself had created thanks to his cruel and ruthless nature.

Castro, who had been grown up among gangsters, acted like a “gang leader”

Castro, who had been grown up among gangsters, acted like a “gang leader,” someone who fought, took risks and was always ready to save his his own skin. His audacity was complemented by a keen sense of knowing when to switch sides, which never failed him when it came time to betray groups such as the Revolutionary Socialist Movement (MSR) or the Revolutionary Insurrectional Union (UIR).

The attack on the Moncada Barracks was a resounding failure due to poor planning and operational disorganization by the man who would later dub himself commander-in-chief and whose henchmen have, over the years, portrayed him as an exceptional military strategist. What the survivors of the assault did manage to accomplish was to establish a regime that has led Cuba to moral and material destruction.

Terror and its consequences — fear and social paralysis — quickly spread. The country began to decline, both economically and socially. Friendships and families were torn apart. Poverty, prison, exile and death were consequences that affected all of society.

Seventy-one years after the siege of the Moncada Barracks and sixty-five years after the triumph of the revolution, Castro’s legacy has little to show for itself.

The island is ruled by a “nomenklatura” that has enjoyed an uninterrupted reign of absolute power. It has degraded the nation to such an extent that even Raúl Castro, one of the chief architects of the dictatorship, once said, “It pains us to look upon the steady decline of moral and civic values such as honesty, decency, shame, decorum, integrity and sensitivity to the problems of others that have marked the the more than twenty-year span of the Special Period.”

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The Success of Emigrated Cuban Coaches Tops Off the Mediocre Performance of Cuban Officialdom in Paris

They won 28 medals in the Olympic Games: 11 gold, 10 silver and seven bronze

Iván Pedroso coaches Jordan Díaz, Olympic champion in triple jump in Paris 2024 / Instagram

14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2024 — At the Paris 2024 Olympics there were 50 Cuban coaches who had emigrated and were in charge of training athletes in 30 countries. They earned 28 medals with their work, triple those obtained by the Cuban delegation (just nine). The result highlighted the impact of exile on the Island’s sport, which this year had its worst performance since Munich 1972.

Of the prizes obtained by Cuban coaches, 11 were gold, 10 silver and seven bronze. Boxing alone, one of the most important disciplines for Cuba, gave other countries nine gold metals. The other two were distributed in other sports.

The biggest success story in Paris was that of Enrique Steiner. Together with Julio Lee from Santiago, he coached the Uzbekistan boxers, who imposed their dominance in the men’s branch. The country won five gold medals under his command: Hasanboy Dusmatov (112 lbs), Abdumalik Khalokov (126 lbs), Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev (147 lbs), Lazizbek Mullojonov (203 lbs) and Bakhodir Jalolov (over 203 lbs). In Cuba, Steiner coached the national youth and adult boxing teams. continue reading

Boxing alone, one of the most important disciplines for Cuba, gave other countries nine gold metals

Three gold medals, also in boxing, went to China, which was under the preparation of Raúl Fernández. In the women’s branch, Wu Yu (110 lbs), Chang Yuan (119 lbs) and Li Qian (165 lbs) won the titles.

The ninth golden metal in boxing with a Cuban coach was obtained by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif (146 lbs), center of one of the greatest controversies about the gender of athletes in Paris. Pedro Luis Díaz, who left an outstanding school in Cuba, was her mentor. He was part of several Olympic cycles under the tutelage of the historic Alcides Sagarra, and he contributed to the development of such figures as Félix Savón, Joel Casamayor, Yan Barthelemí and Héctor Vinent, Olympic legends of the Island.

In Paris, Cuba barely added two medals in boxing, the worst in that discipline in the Olympic Games in 56 years. The Island has received almost a third of the boxing medals in its history; it won 80 of the 244 it has received in the Olympics. The coup could be even worse, because boxing is not contemplated for Los Angeles 2028.

In the world of athletics, Iván Pedroso, in his role as a coach, already has an impressive record. In Tokyo he led the Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas to the gold, with a world record in a triple jump of 15.67 meters (51.4 feet). Now, in Paris, his pupil, Jordan Díaz – an exiled Cuban athlete who represented Spain – won gold in triple jump. The second and third place of that competition were also jumpers from the Island, but under the flags of Portugal (Pedro Pablo Pichardo) and Italy (Andy Díaz).

Iván Pedroso, in his role as a coach, already has an impressive record. In Tokyo he led the Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas to the gold. Now, in Paris, his pupil Jordan Díaz won the gold

As an athlete, Pedroso added a gold medal in Sydney 2000, in addition to having been four times world champion outdoors and five times indoors. His 29.4 feet jump in Sestriere, Italy, in 1995, could have been a world record, but, after a controversy over the wind, it was decided not to recognize it.

The eleventh gold medal of a coach from the Island in Paris was the one obtained by the Dominican Marileidy Paulino. With Yaseen Pérez, from Havana, as her coach, she won the 400 meters (656.2 feet), setting an Olympic record, and she is also the current world champion of the discipline, which made her the only multi-medalist woman in the Dominican Republic.

The number of Cuban coaches working in other countries has grown over the years, along with multiple cases of exile. In Tokyo 2020, 44 were counted, representing 23 nations, and in the last decade alone, more than 1,000 athletes and coaches have fled the Island. This has been a hard blow to the aspirations of Cuban sports internationally.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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UN Rapporteur on Slavery Notes Forced Labor Imposed on Cuban Political Prisoners

A document details the cases of political prisoners who have been subjected to forced labor and highlights several names among ’thousands’.

In a country where production and labor are scarce, the regime has found the ideal labor force in prisoners / IPSCuba

14ymedio, Havana, 28 August 2024 — The imposition of forced labor – such as cutting cane or marabú – on those who express “different political opinions” has led a United Nations collaborator to insist on his “concern” about human rights violations on the island. With a report by the organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) in hand, Tomoya Obokata, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, criticized this practice in Cuban prisons.

During the 57th regular session of the Human Rights Council, of which Cuba is a member, Obokata included the brief report on forced labor in Cuban prisons, prepared by PD. The expert denounced “the existence of national laws and regulations that allow compulsory labor for expressing political opinions or participating in strikes”.

The document details the cases of political prisoners who have been subjected to forced labor and highlights, among “thousands”, several cases: those of Dariel Ruiz García, Walnier Luis Aguilar Rivera, Yeidel Carrero Pablo, Roberto Jesús Marín Fernández, Yanay Solaya Barú, Alexander Díaz Rodríguez, José Díaz Silva, Taimir García Meriño and César Antonio Granados Pérez. continue reading

Although the Cuban Constitution recognizes respect for the prisoner’s dignity, the Penal Code endorses the sanctions for forced labor

Although the Cuban Constitution recognizes respect for the inmate’s dignity, Article 30.3 of the Penal Code endorses the sanctions for forced labor, emphasizes their obligatory nature and leaves it up to the State to “consider the form of compliance through study or betterment”. Through testimonies collected in the report, PD found that attenuated treatment is more than unusual and that compulsory labor is the norm not only for political prisoners but also for ordinary ones.

In a country where production and workforce are scarcities, the regime has found in prisoners the ideal labor force. Inmates are forced to do work no one else is willing to do. PD’s example is the production of marabú charcoal – which brings large profits to the government by being sold abroad – and cutting sugar cane in its harvest season.

“Cuban charcoal is sold in Spain, Portugal and (the rest of) the European Union,” says PD. It is enough to consult the testimony of the relatives of some political prisoners, such as that of Walnier Luis Aguilar’s father, who has denounced how they cut “marabú trunks with their own hands”, without the use of a “machete or axe saw”—the result: “hands full of blisters”, among other injuries.

There are plenty of videos to make the situation clear, PD stresses. “Living without drinking water, in subhuman conditions, with insufficient and outdated work material (the cost of which is deducted from their meager ‘salary’, which many never receive) and sleeping in the open, the workers are forced to work in inhospitable places under the vilest physical, psychological and judicial threats,” they denounce.

The alarming thing, says the organization, is that the product resulting from this slave labor is consumed all over the world with impunity

The alarming thing, says the organization, is that the product resulting from this slave labor is consumed all over the world with impunity. 24% of the Cuban marabou charcoal ends up in the markets of Spain, 21.5% in Portugal, 12.1% in Italy and 11.6% in Turkey, countries with governments with very different ideological leanings which, nonetheless, buy charcoal from Cuba.

PD unequivocally qualifies them as “involuntary accomplices” of the regime since they purchase a product manufactured at the expense of the “suffering and pain” of Cuban prisoners. However, they admit that “Cuba has been able to conceal for years, although not from Cubans, the slave-like origin of its marabou charcoal production”.

The organization hopes that Obokata’s denunciation at the UN will mark a turning point in the fight against these practices on the island. It is calling on the European Union to inform itself about the charcoal it buys and to demand transparency about its production process. The 27 countries are obliged by law not to do business with countries that promote slave labor, they emphasize.

As for sugarcane, PD describes the scenario as a return to the 19th century, when slavery was the engine of the wealthy “sugarocracy”. The difference, in this case, is that not even with its “endless list of human rights violations” does the regime achieve economic prosperity.

As for the rest, there is nothing more similar to a colonial slave than a political prisoner of Castroism. “In most cases, they do not have working gloves, boots or files, which results in the blades not being sharp enough to do the job efficiently”. Everything points to a sort of “involution to centuries ago” that shows the regression, even on a historical level, of the defense of human rights on the island.

There was a skinny, elderly woman in a wheelchair, with asthma, who could no longer walk, who had to leave for work at six o’clock in the morning

The testimonies provided by PD are enough to assess the situation. “There was a skinny elderly lady, in a wheelchair, with asthma, who could no longer even walk, who had to leave for work at six in the morning, like everyone else. No matter their age, health or anything else. There are no conditions for anyone,” says former political prisoner Yanay Solaya. “We work in the fields, whatever they sent us to do, doing the mowing. We did not get paid for it.”

Refusing to work is costly. This is the case, explains PD, of Taimir Garcia, a prisoner of conscience, who was threatened with the withdrawal of her prison leave and the two-month sentence reduction for each year of her sentence, and with being locked up again in a regime of maximum punishment.

Other aspects of the problem, such as the exploitation of children – some prisoners are minors and are subjected to seven-hour working days – or the lack of contracts, should also be a cause for concern, according to PD. The fact that their report has reached the UN Human Rights Council, they believe, justifies paying the utmost attention to the problem and holding Havana accountable.

Translated by LAR

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Cuba’s State Telecommunications Company, Etecsa, Is Mainly Responsible for the Failure of Banking Reform

This sign says it all: “Transfers are not being accepted, connection problems”

A customer of ’El Paquete’ waits for her hard drive to be loaded with movies, music and video games / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2024 — The employee moves the mouse with agility. He connects the hard drive that a client has brought and begins to copy folders with movies, music and video games. The heat and successive operations activate the computer’s internal cooler, and a purr fills the small place, one of the many points available to buy the paquete semanal [weekly packet] in the neighborhood of Cayo Hueso, in Central Havana. In the midst of so much technology and digital files that come and go, a sign stuck on the computer lands in a more analog and rudimentary world: “Transfers are not being accepted, connection problems.”

The Cuban government’s attempt to extend electronic payments, a fundamental pillar of the so-called bancarización — banking reform — runs into countless obstacles every day. To the suspicion of merchants, who see in virtual money a strategy of the authorities to have greater control and surveillance over their income, are added the difficulties with the mobile phone data service, indispensable for any operation of this type. “The inspectors come and want to fine us because we don’t have the option of shopping through QR codes, but today the internet hasn’t worked for us all day,” complains the young man, while collecting cash from a woman who arrives in search of the latest episodes of a Turkish soap opera.

In the midst of so much technology and digital files that come and go, a sign stuck on the computer lands in a more analog world

In much of the neighborhood the situation was being repeated. A market with powdered milk and vegetable oil where customers put their hands in their pockets and take out a lump of bills to pay the bill. A private restaurant that says on the menu that you can pay for the portions of vieja ropa and tostones with just “a click of the mobile” but that did not have a connection continue reading

to the web this Friday either. A religious object store where not even the orishas had managed to activate the 4G signal on the saleswoman’s cell phone. Everyone, at some point in their business, had the little square module printed with all the information for electronic collections, but in no case did it work.

Not even the ’orishas’ had managed to activate the 4G signal on the seller’s mobile phone

“They can’t blame us individuals because Etecsa is one of the group who invented this bancarización thing,” said the technician from a nearby appliance repair shop. “They invented a solution and created another problem,” he continued, while an old woman sitting in front of him counted a dozen 100 and 200 pesos bills to collect enough cash to buy a rice cooker. A few inches from the woman’s wallet, a piece of paper, crumpled and stained by moisture, showed the tangled structure of a QR code and the chimerical phrase: “Quick and safe, pay here.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: Acopio Will Pay Successful Tobacco Growers in Sancti Spíritus Partly in Hard Currency

The State only has 1,962 acres secured of the 5,607 that it planned to exploit for tobacco

The farmers had already warned that planting tobacco was not profitable / Granma

14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2024 — Exactly one year ago, with hands on their heads, the authorities of Sancti Spíritus wondered what to do to revive tobacco production. Whatever the methods were, they didn’t work, and this August, almost at the end of the process of hiring the vegueros (tobacco growers), the State has only 1,962 acres secured of the 5,607 that it planned to exploit.

The figure is equivalent to just 35% of the plan, which will provide, according to estimates, 948 tons of tobacco if the land yields 1.1 tons per 2.5 acres. The original plan, however, was to end the campaign that begins this September with more than 2,569 tons of tobacco, Isidro Hernández Toledo, director of the state company Acopio in the province, told the newspaper Escambray.

“There is a delay; the tobacco should have been contracted between March and April, but by waiting for an incentive to be offered to the planters, the contracting for the new campaign is behind,” regrets the official, who explains that the State finally gave and offered the vegueros a stimulus in MLC (freely convertible currency). However, it is still to be seen if this will increase production. continue reading

It is hard to understand why the regime gives so little to a sector that generates a large part of the foreign currency income that the Island obtains

It is hard to understand why the regime gives so little to a sector that generates a large part of the foreign currency income that the Island obtains. In fact, the farmers themselves announced the debacle a year ago, when the Sancti Spíritus campaign was “the worst in history,” and they did it again last March, when they declared to the official press that planting tobacco at the price paid by Acopio no longer gives results.

However, the State, now with a financial rope around its neck, has taken it for granted. “We think that a recovery can begin, which pleases the vegueros, because today in national currency, the sun-cured tobacco does not have good profitability and has been one of the biggest reasons producers stopped sowing,” Hernández confessed to Escambray.

The incentive, however, is not for all the vegueros, but will be paid according to the quality of the tobacco delivered, in addition to other requirements. “The producers have the right to sell the tobacco for hard currency, applying 2% to the value of the quality that determines the price, and deducting the cost of imports and national productions that have a component in MLC. Among the requirements are complying with the contracted planting plan and obtaining an agricultural yield of at least 1.2 tons per 2.5 acres in irrigated areas, and one ton in dry areas (which depend on rain),” he clarified.

This is a variation of the production incentive implemented in October 2023, when they promised to deliver to deliver to the growers 50% of what was used in fertilizers and pesticides

In summary, this is a variation of the production incentive implemented in October 2023, when they promised to deliver to the growers 50% of what was used in fertilizers and pesticides, it they managed to surpass the 1.4 tons per 2.5 acres plan. As for the state of sowing this year, it is clear that the measure didn’t work either.

“In addition to the low profitability of the crop lately, there is a lack of sheds to cure the tobacco, many sick and elderly producers who held the land in usufruct [a form of leasing] and then abandoned it, and places where there is no guarantee of water – something vital to achieve high agricultural yield. Hernández also added to the list the deficit of workers in many areas, mainly because not all vegueros can pay what the day laborers ask,” Hern.

While the growers are concerned about the profitability of the product, the Havana cigar is a symbol of luxury anywhere in the world. Of the billions raised annually by the industry, however, only the minimum is reinvested to keep the business afloat.

While the growers are concerned about the profitability of the product, the Havana cigar is a symbol of luxury anywhere in the world

Last July, at an event in London, the Hunters & Frankau house auctioned off Cuban cigars to all kinds of international celebrities who did not hesitate to offer large sums for them. In a single night, Habanos SA raised 5,150,000 euros, barely a small sum in its coffers, but with which the Cuban growers could rescue the industry.

However, the chance of this happening is as unlikely as Sancti Spíritus being able to revive its current tobacco campaign at this point. Hernández knows it very well, and he described the coming production – without using big words – as “discreet.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Drama of Deported Cubans Who Leave Their Family in the United States

When Cuban deportees return fromthe US to the Island, they are taunted by the immigration authorities at José Martí airport

Vivian Limonta and her husband Osmani Pérez before she was deported / Video capture / Univision

14ymedio, Havana, August 30, 2024 — “I’m happy about everything you’ve been through,” blurted out a José Martí International Airport officer to Vivian Limonta, one of the 48 Cubans deported by the U.S. last Wednesday. The mother of a hyperactive child with attention deficit, not even her marriage to an American saved her from forced return. The authorities of the Island, to rub salt in the wound, added: “See how bad that country is, look: they bring you like dogs.”

Limonta was a beneficiary of the Migrant Protection Protocols that Washington initiated in 2019. However, due to a setback, she could not attend the appointment scheduled in the Court in 2020, so she was given the probation form I-220B, for which they have deported dozens of Cubans. Her words, interviewed this Thursday by Univision, attest to the effect that deportation had on her: “I’m devastated. I’m speechless.”

Limonta had been detained since last July at the Broward Migrant Detention Center of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE). The appeals filed by her lawyer were dismissed. The evidence of the distance between her and her family on the Island, who consider her “counterrevolutionary” for publishing statements on social networks critical of the regime, were not mitigating. Her son and her husband were left behind. continue reading

Osmani Pérez went to the office of Congressman Carlos Giménez but could not prevent his wife’s deportation / Video capture / Univision

“I never thought that the United States Government would separate me from my son like this and deport me,” she lamented.

Limonta’s husband, Osmani Pérez – who has lived in the United States for 31 years – tells how his wife “collapsed emotionally” after her arrest. He feels “disappointed” by the resolution of the case, because he assumed that Washington would defend the family unit above all else.

In an attempt to stop Limonta’s deportation, her husband went to the office of Congressman Carlos Giménez, who pointed out in a statement that his office fights tirelessly for the rights of all residents “despite the bad decisions of this Administration (of Joe Biden), including those of admitting Castro repressors to our country while punishing victims, as in this case.”

In this “fight” to avoid being returned to Cuba are Olga Díaz, 84 years old, and her daughter Nilda Cordero, who arrived in Florida the last week of August along with 19 other rafters. All migrants were given a deportation order.

Díaz was allowed to stay with her family until the situation is resolved, but her daughter is detained in Broward. “We arrived with the hope of a new life, but now I’m here without my daughter and that hurts me deeply,” the elderly woman told Telemundo 51.

In this “fight” to avoid being returned to Cuba are Olga Díaz, 84 years old, and her daughter Nilda Cordero, who arrived in Florida along with 19 other rafters

Immigration lawyer Eduardo Soto, who took over the case, explained that the situation “is complicated,” although they hope that “justice will prevail” and that both women will be able to remain in the United States.

The governments of Havana and Washington have a bilateral agreement so that all migrants arriving by sea to US territory are returned to Cuba.

Since June 5, stricter measures against irregular migration have come into force. Among them, that rafters could “face criminal charges,” in addition to the usual measures. “They will not be eligible to apply for asylum,” and they will be “prohibited” from entering US territory for at least five years, according to the US Embassy in Havana.

Between January and August 29, Cuba has received 1,046 deportees from different countries. The most recent return was that by Bahamian authorities of 16 rafters (9 men, 4 women and 3 minors) from Villa Clara.

In April 2023, deportation flights resumed, mainly for people considered “inadmissible” after being held on the US border with Mexico.

According to a recent report by US Customs and Border Protection, in June 17,563 Cubans arrived in the United States, the lowest figure during a calendar month of the current fiscal year 2024 that began last October.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Political Prisoner Yilian Oramas Obtains the Revocation of a Sanction, Thanks to Her Hunger Strike

For arriving late from her leave, the authorities threatened to move her to a harsher regime.

Oramas had to be treated by prison health personnel after her hunger strike/ Facebook / Yilian Oramas García

14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2024 — Political prisoner Yilian Oramas García ended her hunger strike at the Cuba Panama prison for HIV-positive prisoners on Tuesday. The woman from Villa Clara had been punished with a change of regime from less to more rigorous after arriving late from leave on August 13. Oramas, who lives more than 250 kilometres from the prison in Mayabeque, initiated the protest to ask for the measure to be revoked. The authorities finally agreed this week after changing the sanction to two home-visit suspensions.

In addition to having HIV, Oramas, 43, is also diabetic and after the strike she had to be treated by prison health staff. “She was very weak because she is diabetic, they gave her IVs in the little hospital they have in the prison,” her mother, María Josefa Oramas, told Martí Noticias.

According to the woman, Oramas “ended the strike, because the head of Mayabeque Prisons and Jails (Yunior Lázaro Santana), together with State Security, cancelled her revocation, which was for two years and, instead, they took away two of her home visits.” continue reading

The mother breathes a sigh of relief since a change to a more severe regime would mean that her daughter must serve the entire sentence.

Although she considers the measure unjust, her mother breathes a sigh of relief, since a change to a more severe regime would mean that her daughter must serve the entire sentence without the right to an early release. “You don’t win against the dictatorship, but the revocation meant she had to serve the three years,” she said.

Oramas was sentenced to six years in prison for participating in the August 15, 2021 protests in front of the funeral home in the city of Santa Clara, where she lives, to demand better health care amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Her husband, Geobel Manso, was also arrested on that day and is currently incarcerated. The court charged Oramas with the crimes of attack and resistance.

Worse off is the political prisoner Loreto Hernández García – arrested after the protests of 11 July 2021 (11J) in Placetas (Villa Clara) – who is serving his sentence in the men’s prison of Guamajal. According to what his daughter Rosabel Sánchez told Martí Noticias after visiting her father and his wife Donaida Pérez Paseiro – also a prisoner of conscience – Hernández is in a bad physical condition.

“During this visit, we were able to talk, we were able to observe, we were able to visualize for ourselves the situation that my father’s health presents. My father, every time we go to see him, he loses more weight,” Sanchez explained. “He often gets a pain on his left side, a pain that radiates to his left lung. He is getting shortness of breath, his diabetes is unbalanced (…) He explains to us that on several occasions he becomes weak and tired. As for his health, we saw that he has not improved at all, he is getting worse and worse, he is in very bad shape,” she denounced.

According to Sánchez, prison authorities use her father’s poor health condition to coerce him.

According to Sanchez, prison authorities use her father’s poor health condition to coerce him and promise him a transfer to a less severe regime where he can be cared for and serve a shorter sentence. “State Security has approached him and has proposed he take advantage of the benefits to give him the minimum sentence and move him to the camp to start granting him leaves and things like that, and both he and his wife refuse these benefits,” said Sanchez, who assures that the couple “is standing firm.”

Hernández and his wife, at the time of the protests, presided over the Asociación Yorubas Libres de Cuba, in Placetas, and were sentenced to seven and eight years in prison respectively. Organizations and institutions such as Amnesty International, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Cuban Prison Documentation Center and Christian Solidarity International, as well as the U.S. State Department, have included them in their reports and records as political prisoners and have demanded the Cuban regime to release them.

Last June, prisoner of conscience Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca arrived in the United States after the authorities forced his departure. He was emaciated and ill as a result of the ill-treatment he suffered at the hands of his jailers. “I have been tortured a lot,” stressed the journalist, who served three years in Havana’s Combinado del Este, the country’s largest prison.

Translated by LAR

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‘The Only Thing Moving On Wheels in the Cienfuegos Terminal is the Inefficiency’

Those who did not manage to board during the day are condemned to sleep in the facility.

After 5pm it’s very difficult to travel to Cienfuegos’s municipalities / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 17 August 2024 – It’s after 8pm in the only bus terminal in Cienfuegos and despite the fact that dozens of people are gathered at the departure gates or are sleeping on the benches in the waiting room, the route board is not displaying a single destination. Anyone who didn’t manage to travel during the day is condemned to sleep in the building, along with those who, on a waiting list, are trying to travel to other provinces of the country. Outside, the private taxis hawk their services but the waiting passengers don’t listen to – or don’t want to hear – the price they’d have to pay for an almendrón shared taxi ride.

On the second floor of the terminal, in the gloom, there are only two lights working, beneath which sits one of the few employees – with a pile of crumpled papers – who are still in the station at this time to keep a note of the names of passengers. The darkness attracts people who, being exhausted, resign themselves to sleep in the corners or on the benches. “I’ve been sleeping here for three nights, trying to get to Holguín”, Nereida tells 14ymedio – a health worker whose salary won’t stretch to a more expensive means of transport.

According to her, having options available but no money to pay for them is what keeps her tied to the terminal: “If you speak to the duty manager he’ll get you on the first bus that arrives but that conversation will cost you between 1,500 and 3,000 pesos, on top of what you’ll have to pay later to the driver”, she says. continue reading

The room for those on the waiting list is in half-darkness with people asleep on the benches / 14ymedio

Spending time in the way that she has until now in this terminal has not exactly been comfortable either. She and Ana, who lives with her four-year-old daughter in San Fernando de Camarones, Palmira, have decided to join forces to look after each other and each others’ luggage. The young mother has only spent one night in the terminal but the abandonment that she’s made to feel, especially having to carry her child around on piggyback, is very real.

“I have to visit my sick mother in Gibara and I don’t have anyone I can leave the child with. We have to stay in here until we can depart”, she says. Ana explains that it was impossible for her to book a ticket on the Viajando app because, “when there’s no capacity it doesn’t allow you to buy a ticket for a minor; or you find the connection with the server is down”, she complains.

“Its lucky that I brought a little bit of lunch and dinner for us. The only thing that they had in the cafeteria today was instant hot drinks and pasta with stale bread. To top it off, when I went past there at four o’clock in the afternoon it was already closed”, she adds with disgust. What’s on offer in the private shops opposite the station is also inaccessible for most of the travellers: the cheapest, a sandwich, is 150 pesos and a simple shared meal 1,000 pesos.

The majority of inter-municipal routes are cancelled due to lack of vehicles or fuel / 14ymedio

With her daughter asleep in her arms, Ana laments the poor state that the terminal is in, and that the authorities’ lack of concern, and necessity, have attracted a number of beggars, who are sleeping in the building long term. The semi-darkness doesn’t help the situation either, she says. “It doesn’t even matter if there’s a power cut, ’cos you can’t see anything anyway”, she adds sarcastically.

On a board with various crossings-out you can read the origin, destination and time of departure for all of the different bus routes to the municipalities of the province. “That board is just there for decoration, because almost none of the routes are operating and those that are don’t leave at the time advertised”, she says, pointing to the black notice board fixed to the wall. Apart from Havana and Santa Clara, it’s rare for a bus to have a daily departure to other destinations, so that the number of travellers can build up easily at any hour of the day.

“At this hour the terminal appears quieter, but the reality is that everyone is outside to escape the heat. As soon as a bus arrives it’s full in here”, she explains.

People gather when they see a bus arriving, hoping it will take them home / 14ymedio

Inside the hall, a group of men, women and children who are sitting on the broken metal benches jump up like coil springs when they see a vehicle appear – and bring them back some hope. “Here there are people who are travelling to any municipality, like Cartagena or Abreus, but at this hour it’s unlikely that anything will arrive”, comments Nereida, noting that the 9.30 Lajas bus is “running late or won’t arrive at all”.

She explains that some time ago she gave up trying to get any information about the bus timetables. “No one’s able to give any information to anyone who is desperate to get home. Some employees even get shirty if you ask them for the schedule, or whether the bus you’re waiting for is operating”, she adds.

The poor level of hygiene in the toilets, the careless and unreliable treatment of passengers’ belongings – “they don’t even put labels on the suitcases”, she says – all make the whole travel experience a real ordeal. Nereida’s and Ana’s opinion, like every other passenger’s opinion of the level of service in the terminal, is solemn: “The only thing moving on wheels here… is the Inefficiency”

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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With the Beginning of the School Year, Cuban Families Fear the Spread of the Oropouche Virus

Official data minimize the presence of the disease and admit only a few severe cases of the Oropouche virus

The population fears the expansion of Oropouche fever in a context of constant unhealthiness, with the presence of stagnant water

14ymedio, Madrid, 29 August 2024 — There is concern on the Island after the director of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health, Francisco Durán, spoke on Wednesday of a “considerable increase” in cases of Oropouche fever. Since the detection of the first patient in May, 506 cases have been diagnosed, “the lowest figure in the Latin American and Caribbean region,” the doctor said. But the situation on the ground does not reflect the official optimism.

“In 99 municipalities?” questions one of the thousands of users who have reacted on networks to Durán’s statements. “I would say that in all the houses and state hotels of Cuba there is no one left who has not been sick with either dengue or Oropouche. Having it diagnosed is not worth the five pesos since there is a lack of reagents, even for a minimal leukogram, which makes it difficult. How can we expect a confirmation of antigens?

“If they don’t count those who have not gone to the doctor, the figure remains very small. At least where I live even the dogs have caught it,” says a reader of Cubadebate.

Durán, who mentioned the presence of fever in all the Cuban provinces, added that “so far no serious cases or deaths have been reported, and 80% of the people who have been suspected of contracting the disease without testing positive have recovered at home.” How? continue reading

“If they don’t count those who have not gone to the doctor, the figure remains very small. At least where I live even the dogs have caught it.”

Agustín has been in bed for 21 days, confined to his home in El Globo, in Calabazar. Although his friends consider him a very healthy man, he points out that the virus left him “fried,” and only after these three weeks has he been able to talk.

Durban insisted that at first it was thought that the virus had no complications, but recent studies – especially in Brazil – have revealed serious cases “with encephalitis, meningitis, maternal-child transmission, abortion, fetal death, four newborns with microcephaly and two deaths.” In Cuba, he boasted, there have only been “clinical conditions with meningitis, with satisfactory recovery.”

Meningitis as a complication associated with Oropouche has made parents tremble, fearful of contagion. Although arbovirosis is only transmitted by the bite of the mosquito, the networks have been filled with messages in which fear is expressed about the possibility that meningitis – which is transmitted by contact and through the air – will circulate in schools. The fear is, for now, unfounded, but that has not mitigated the tension as the school year approaches.

“I hope that measures are taken – at least the obligatory mask at school and hand gel. People send their children with everything,” says a mother. “Likewise,” another replies, her face showing concern, “I am upset with that story of meningitis, with the children going to school now.”

Durán’s words about how to prevent the disease have also irritated the population. The official stressed that the most important thing is “the sanitation of the environment, since Oropouche is transmitted by the bite of the mosquito of the genus Culex and the culicoid (jején, or gnat), which breed in dirty water.”

“With the greatest respect, don’t scare the people anymore,” a man said on Facebook. Drinking water runs in the streets, the little that comes in. The sewers are a joke; garbage overruns the streets of any municipality; the heat is infuriating due to the lack of power, and the mosquitoes and jejenes have a good time. Nothing is fumigated, for God’s sake, Dr. Durán.”

The sewers are a joke; garbage overruns the streets of any municipality; the heat is infuriating due to the lack of power, and the mosquitoes and jejenes have a good time

The minister described the epidemiological situation in general as “complex,” since influenza and dengue are circulating simultaneously.

Oropouche was first detected in 1955 near the river from which it inherits its name, in Trinidad and Tobago, and is also known as “sloth fever,” since the first researchers discovered it in a three-toed sloth.

In 2024, Oropouche arrived in Cuba and other countries in which there had never been a precedent, such as Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Brazil. To date, there are more than 8,000 cases, and the Pan American Health Organization issued an epidemiological alert in July 2024. Several cases have already been detected in Europe, most of them in Spain (16), imported by travelers arriving from Latin America.

On Tuesday, U.S. health authorities said they have identified 21 cases of Oropouche fever among people returning from Cuba, three of whom had to be hospitalized.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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