Cuba: Ciego de Avila Prepares 6,000 More Niches in a New Cemetery

Ciego de Avila Cemetery Project (Invasor)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 25 August 2021 — Ciego de Ávila is preparing the construction of 2,600 niches immediately of the total of 6,000 that will be erected in the new cemetery of the city. The cemetery began to be prepared days ago, as published on Tuesday by the provincial newspaper Invasor.

Milagros Ruiz Heredia, director of the Ciego de Ávila Design and Engineering Company, responsible for the project, said that the future cemetery is in an area near the incinerator.

The project, as detailed by one of the technicians, will have a central park, a pantheon for combatants with a ceremonial plaza, areas for pantheons for entities and institutions, another for vaults, niches, ossuaries and columbariums, a crematorium for boxes and waste, and an incinerator for bone remains.

In addition, a parking lot and a main building with a lobby, offices and other dependencies are planned outside. continue reading

The specialists told Invasor that prefabricated technology will be used, something they attributed to an intention to prioritize minimalism, although speed and price could also be behind the decision.

A month ago, authorities also reported the expansion of the existing cemetery, with the hasty construction of 150 niches, just as it was made public, and work to add 350 more. The initial plan was to complete the work with a total of 2,000 niches and 900 ossuaries.

The people of Ciego de Avila have been denouncing the collapse of funeral services for weeks with the peak of covid-19 that affects the province. In Ciego de Ávila, the incidence at two weeks is 2,217.3 per 100,000 inhabitants and there are even municipalities such as Chambas in which a rate of 3,611 per 100,000 have been reached, when the World Health Organization considers any number above 100 cases per 100,000 people is a very high risk.

Despite this context, the authorities have argued that both the expansion of the cemetery and the construction of the new cemetery in the city of Ciego de Ávila were planned for a long time, but it is difficult for residents to believe that a planned work is causing so many problems — such as the bad smells and unhealthiness that the first one has caused — and they believe that it is work that has been accelerated by a pandemic that has exceeded any forecast.

Some of the readers of Invasor wonder if it would not be better to build another hospital, including the missing pediatric one, to better serve health and avoid so many deaths.

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Somos+ Calls a Protest Against the Complicity of #PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) with the Havana Regime / Somos+

Press release: SOMOS+ Movement, 8 June 2021

A wave of indignation is sweeping through Cuban communities around the world today. Thanks to the cooperation of Prisoners Defenders and the BBC, we have learned of the complicity in Brussels of several Euro-MPs with the dictatorship that enslaves our people.

The leaked messages reveal that representatives of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (currently governing Spain) “warned” the Cuban embassy in that country in advance to try to “stop” a resolution that other Euro-Deputies were attempting to promote to condemn repression on the Island.

It is devastating to even think that public servants who receive salaries from the European taxpayer are using their influence to cooperate in maintaining the longest-lived and most destructive dictatorship in the American hemisphere. The very founding values of the EU expound the democratic calling and the commitment of all member states to promote Human Rights and fundamental freedoms in the world. continue reading

The history of Europe should leave no doubt about the destructive capacity of these regimes, both materially and morally. That is why we feel the duty to protest publicly and energetically against this baseness of the PSOE, the High Representative Josep Borrell, and [Prime Minister] Pedro Sánchez himself, who is most responsible for this lack of principles.

The efforts, risks, and punishments that so many Cubans suffer daily for demanding freedoms and rights will be of no use if the highest institutions created in the world to ensure those rights turn their backs on us and give preference to economic interests that keep criminals, dictators, and drug traffickers in power.

That is why we are calling on every Cuban, Spaniard, European, and others who want Freedom for Cuba, to join us this June 10th in Miami, Madrid, and in many other cities to demand the end of the complicity, impunity, and shamelessness of the European Union with the Dictatorship.

We wait for you and thank you in advance.

Ing. Eliecer Avila, Pte. Somos+

Announcement released by Eliecer Avila on Tuesday, June 7, 2021

Translated by Tomás A.

Update and Legal Analysis on the Case of Jailed Rapper Maykel ‘Osorbo’ Castillo / Cubalex

Maykel remained in the middle of the street with his handcuffs hanging from his wrist, an image that has become an icon and evidence of the State’s repression of its citizens.

Cubalex, 3 June 2021 — On May 18 Maykel Castillo was arrested while he was at his house having lunch. They took him away without a shirt or shoes, and for 13 days he was in “forced disappearance.” The people close to him who went to ask about him at the police station were denied information–the police claimed that Castillo was not registered in the system. His whereabouts were unknown until May 31, when it was learned that he had been transferred to 5-y-Medio Prison in Pinar del Río.

During this time neither State Security nor the police released information about Maykel or the reasons for his arrest. The political police even went to his house and seized his cell phones without a search warrant or a record of expropriation.

On April 4, as the musician was about to arrive at the headquarters of the San Isidro Movement, the police carried out a forced detention, without legal justification and in violation of his right to move freely. After being confined in his home for days by agents of State Security, the San Isidro neighborhood intervened so that they would not take him away, blocking the patrol; Maykel remained in the middle of the street with his handcuffs hanging from his wrist, an image that has become an icon and evidence of the State’s continue reading

repression of its citizens.

According to the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) the act was committed on April 4, 2021, when Maykel Castillo interfered in the action of the police. But it was not until May 18 (44 days later) that he was arrested and transferred to the Investigative Body of the MININT, decreeing the prosecutor’s precautionary measure of provisional imprisonment.

He was transferred on May 31 from Havana to the province of Pinar del Río, without knowing the reasons for his relocation, in the midst of an unprecedented health crisis on the island and scarcity of resources. Being far from his place of residence makes it difficult to have access to his lawyer and his family visits, due to the closure of provinces with Covid-19 restrictions.

It is striking that Cubadebate’s account asserts that the crimes for which he is being prosecuted are: Attack, Public Disorders, and Evasion of Prisoners or Detainees. But when the First Criminal Chamber of the People’s Provincial Court of Havana issued a judicial Resolution on May 24, 2021, it acknowledged that it had carefully examined the Preparatory Phase File 24/21 OEI-DCSE for the crimes of Attack, Resistance, and Contempt. The file was opened almost a month after the event occurred, all of which leaves room for a question: Who is lying, judges Alennis Vázquez Flores, Zamira Narrero Morgado, Greta Bernal Vila, Liliam Portel Gil, and ZeydaTorres Medina or Cubadebate, the official state information medium?

It is important to remember that the IACHR (The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; in Spanish, CIDH), issued a precautionary measure on February 11, 2021 as stated in Resolution 14/2021 in favor of the members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), among whom is Maykel Castillo. The IACHR asked the Cuban State to adopt the necessary measures to protect their rights against acts of risk attributable to the Cuban authorities themselves and to guarantee that they can carry out their activities as human rights defenders — everything that is being violated by his arrest and submission to an unjustified criminal process.

Translated by Tomás A.

Update on the Transfer to Prison of the Obispo Protesters / Cubalex

Cubalex, 28 May 2021 — The six protesters arrested during the peaceful protest on April 30 on Obispo Street in Old Havana have already been transferred to remote prisons, outside the capital and in different provinces from Pinar del Río to Matanzas.

Yuisán Cancio Vera was transferred to the Pinar del Río provincial penitentiary and Thais Mailén Franco to the Occidente women’s prison in Guatao, on the outskirts of Havana province in the La Lisa municipality, on May 22.

On Friday, May 21, Inti Soto Romero was transferred to the Guanajay prison, in the province of Artemisa, but this was not communicated to his family until the 24th, when they went to visit him at the headquarters of the Department of State Security, Villa Marista.

On May 26, ICLEP (Cuban Institute for Freedom of Speech and Press) announced that Mary Karla Ares González, citizen journalist and member of the Network in Defense of Human Rights, was continue reading

being transferred to the Occidente women’s prison, in Guatao, in La Lisa, as confirmed later by her father to Cubalex.

Another journalist Esteban Rodríguez, a collaborator of ADNCuba media, was transferred to the Valle Grande penitentiary, far from the city, in the La Lisa municipality, on May 26.

Luis Ángel Cuza Alfonso has been transferred to the Combinado del Sur Prison, in Matanzas Province.

Seclusion in other provinces, or far from their place of residence, in this case Havana, in the midst of mobility restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will make it difficult for lawyers and families to access the imprisoned activists, which itself is a form of punishment.

All the protesters face the same charges of public disorder (Article 228) and resistance (Article 159 of the Penal Code), with sentences ranging from 3 months to 5 years imprisonment. Requests to change pretrial confinement measures were rejected by the court.

The lawyer for the protestors has not had access to the files during the preparatory phase. On May 9, an appeal was filed against the denial of habeas corpus issued by the Provincial People’s Court of Havana. The TSJ (Supreme Court of Justice) does not usually respond to urgent appeals.

From Cubalex, we demand the immediate freedom of the Obispo protesters.

Translated by Tomás A.

Activists Transferred to Prison and Others Besieged: Report of a Week in Cuba / Cubalex

Cubalex, 2 June 2021 — Cubalex monitored the acts of harassment against civil society from May 24 to 31, 2021, as well as background news associated with the government measures applied during the pandemic, and events of shortages of products and basic goods. This report also breaks down the selective internet outages that activists and dissidents have suffered; and highlights the threats, attacks and violations of rights from the official press or profiles related to the government.

During the week, 68 events were recorded, for a total of 269 events that our organization has monitored during the month.

Of the repressive events, 92% were against members of independent civil society and 70 people in total were affected, 28 of them women. Five of Obispo’s protesters were transferred to prison, three were sent to prisons in provinces other than their places of residence, which will make access difficult for their families and lawyers. Meanwhile the reporter Mary Karla Ares, who covered the protest, was released on May 31st, but continues to be under investigation.

Our weekly summary highlights the medical discharge of Luis Manuel Otero, detained and held incommunicado for a month at the Calixto García hospital. The release occured the same day that rapper Maykel Osorbo was transferred to a prison in Pinar del Río. The musician, one of the performers of Patria y Viva, has been in forced disappearance since the 18th.

Here you can consult and download our full report.

Translated by Tomás A.

Cubalex Denounces Discrimination in New MININT Platform / Cubalex

Zanja Police Station (Cubanet)

CUBALEX, 29 June 2021  — Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior (MININT) announced the launch of five new services aimed at individuals through its web portal. From Cubalex we observe with concern that:

1. These services can only be accessed from Cuba (the page does not open abroad). This is an example of discrimination and an illegitimate limit of access to personal information. For example, if you started a procedure on the island and then travel, you cannot follow up remotely  on your case, violating the principle of proactive transparency.

2. The information can only be accessed after having created a user account, unjustifiably forcing the subject to enter personal data that violates privacy.

3. The data required, merely for registration, is sensitive information that violates the fundamental right to the protection of personal data of its holders.

4. On the legislative agenda for 2021 is the Decree Law on Protection continue reading

of Personal Data, scheduled for February 2021, but so far the content and scope of the regulation is unknown. The State has failed to meet its own schedule. According to international standards, only name and email should be requested for this registration. But this page also requests: identity card, volume and folio.

* Cubalex objects that there is information requested that should not be required to create an account and to access personal information held by the State. And that there are no legal or institutional mechanisms for the management and protection of this information, which can lead to serious violations of rights, and impunity for the subjects obliged to safeguard it.

Translated by Tomás A.

Pablo Moya Dela, Member of Unpacu and Activist, Dies

Pablo Moya Delá, died this Thursday night at the “Juan Bruno Zayas” Clinical Surgical Hospital in Santiago de Cuba. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, August 27, 2021 – The former political prisoner and member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), Pablo Moya Delá, died this Thursday night at the “Juan Bruno Zayas” Clinical Surgical Hospital in Santiago de Cuba due to to the fact that the anemia and pneumonia with which he presented were complicated by a bacterial infection he acquired in the polyclinic.

At the beginning of August, Moya Delá, age 65, was released from prison on a furlough, which kept him disqualified from his citizenship rights, and was transferred to the hospital in serious condition, after spending 40 days on a hunger strike in Boniato Prison in Santiago de Cuba.

Two months before his protest “he had suffered beatings by common prisoners acting at the behest of State Security,” according to a statement of complaint published on Unpacu’s social media, which also stated that he was being denied medical attention.

Moya Delá’s health deteriorated in prison, aggravating his continue reading

pre-existing ailments: “arterial hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, and muscular atrophy in one of his hands due to a neurological disorder,” according to his son, Daineris Moya Garcia. Despite this, he managed to overcome the covid-19 that was diagnosed in March.

“Sister, my father has died, they killed my father,” Moya García said to Kata Mojena, the emigrant activist, to tell her of his father’s death.

In the polyclinic, he had a fever of 102.2 degrees and adverse reactions to medications used as substitutes to treat his ailments, such as administering dechlorpheinate in the absence of dipyrone; which caused his blood pressure to drop “to 90 over 60, then 80 over 60, later 60 over 40 and 70 over 60”, according to what was published on the Facebook account of the leader of Unpacu, José Daniel García Ferrer, who has been detained since July 11.

There were treatments that were not completed due to the lack of medications, said the dissident’s son. “The medicine they are giving me is a medicine that has no effect on me,” Pablo Moya told Ana Belkis Ferrer Garcia, just five days before his death.

Family members and activists blame the Cuban regime for the death of the dissident and former political prisoner.. Venezuelan lawyer Tamara Suju, a human rights defender and executive director of the Casla Institute, denounced: “Another Cuban political prisoner dies, who had been released a few days ago in inhumane healthcare conditions.” And she held Diaz Canel responsible. “He lets them die little by little in prisons, a form of Communist Torture.”

Moya Delá was arrested on October 23, 2020, when he protested against shortages in stores and repression, and was taken to the Eleventh Police Station of San Miguel Padrón, Havana. There, he maintained a 23-day strike despite being in poor health, according to his family, and was later taken to Santiago de Cuba as an “illegal.”

Self-employed, a former sailor, and promoter of Cuba Decides, he lived with his wife in the Cuban capital, where he maintained his opposition activity; but the authorities considered his residence illegal, and every time he was arrested he was taken to Santiago de Cuba, where he was originally from.

Translated by Tomás A.

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

Cuba’s Official Press Plans to Participate in Social and Popular Control

The Council of Ministers has 30 days to propose and approve the functions, composition and structure at all levels of the new agency, which will replace the ICRT. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 26 August 2021 — Cuban authorities want to update their peculiar approach to information transparency. According to their analysis, when they have silenced some uncomfortable news it is because they needed to defend the Revolution from its “enemies,” but times have changed and the strategy must be different, said Ricardo Ronquillo Bello, president of the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC).

On Wednesday, the official appeared with other communication leaders, on the State TV Roundtable program to talk again about the creation of the Institute of Information and Social Communication (IICS), which will replace the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT).

“In a country that has had to be constructed in a trench, subjected to permanent harassment, one of the things that has happened to us is that, not a few times, silence was part of the strategy to confront the enemies of the Revolution. But in the era of convergence, with a dramatic change in the way communication works, you can no longer bet on silence,” he said.

The official argued that the word “transparency” may generate doubts among those who remember it from the “Soviet glasnost.” “However, in recent years it has been vindicated, turning it into a word of the Revolution that should describe the type continue reading

of operation of Cuban public institutions.”

The Institute, he explained, now opens the possibility of building “a press model that has not been built in the world.” Ronquillo Bello lamented that there are those who defend the emergence of a “parallel system in Cuba that has been growing at times with financing from the United States,” making reference to the independent press, which they continue to try to link with the “empire,” whether or not it receives money from Washington.

In his opinion, the private media are not, contrary to the opinions of others, the solution to the problems of journalism in Cuba, which he did not mention at any time, although he did allude to the material difficulties as if they were the most serious of the problems afflicting the state-owned media.

“In discussing with them, I tell them that we can do something that has never been done anywhere in the world: build a press media system that truly becomes part of the mechanisms of social and popular control,” he said in an unusual statement on which he insisted, making it clear that this was not a slip of the tongue.

“[In the Revolution] the press was often part of the mechanisms of political control. Now we have to encourage the press to be part of the mechanisms of social and popular control. This has to be one of the main horizons of the new institute,” he reiterated.

Humberto Juan Fabián Suárez, vice-president of the Cuban Association of Social Communicators, recalled that communication is one of the three basic pillars of government management, and defended the new institute, which will have the rank of a government ministry, about which he revealed some details that did not dispel practical doubts.

The official said that it has taken nine years to create this body and its gestation involved, in addition to journalists, members of associations and official institutions of communicators and journalists and specialists from radio, television and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Labor and Social Security and Finance and Prices, as well as the Commission for the Implementation of the guidelines and the Communist Party.

Among the documentation, 82 theses were examined and a comparative law study in communication was carried out, more than 400 people were consulted and 900 opinions were collected, although it is not to be assumed that there was too much diversity in the structuring. “It was not rushed at all,” he added.

Onelio Castillo Corderí, member of the Permanent Working Group for the creation of the IICS, explained that its creation will be accompanied by a body of legislation ranging from a communications law to various decrees and resolutions that will be published in the coming months.

“The Constitution of the Republic defends communication, information and knowledge as citizens’ rights and as a public good of the citizenry,” he said, although in practice Cubans are barred from accessing online any page that the Government considers they should not read, starting with this newspaper or different media from other parts of the world. In addition, in Cuba it is not allowed to practice journalism outside the State and reporters are detained, held in their homes or prevented from traveling for training and attending courses or conferences.

In this context, and when journalism has once again been excluded as an activity that can be exercised outside the State, either as self-employed or in one of the new MSMEs [mipymes = small or medium-sized enterprises], Castillo Corderí argued that the IICS has among its missions “to promote the culture of dialogue and consensus in Cuban society.”

The decision to create the new institute, he insisted, “is a clear expression of the political will to strengthen our democracy based on a higher level of participation of the people in the construction of our economic and social model, in the construction of the destiny for the country we have chosen and the underpinning of the constitutional concept that Cuba is a socialist state governed by the rule of law.”

The Council of Ministers has 30 days to propose and approve the functions, composition and structure at all levels of the new body. Some conclusions can be drawn from the appointments already been made, although it is not expected that the new IICS will bring anything new.

Translated by: Hombre de Paz

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

Cuban Artist Hamlet Lavastida Has Now Been Held for 60 Days in Villa Marista

Lavastida “is not feeling well, he says he is under a lot of stress,” declared the poet Katherine Bisquet, partner of the visual artist.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio / EFE, Havana, August 25, 2021 — Lavastida “is not feeling well, he says he is under a lot of stress,” declared the poet Katherine Bisquet, partner of the visual artist. “I just spoke with Hamlet’s mother and she has requested psychological treatment.”

Bisquet said that “days ago Hamlet had asked his mother to send him pain relievers for his migraine attacks.”

Lavastida, declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, has now served 60 days in the maximum security prison in Havana known as Villa Marista, under the accusation of “instigation to commit a crime.” The artist has been denied a change of conditions of release and three appeals, Bisquet reported.

Given this, she held the Cuban regime responsible for any “physical or mental” damage that could occur to the graduate of the Higher Institute of Art: “What they do is totally illegal, typical of corrupt and despotic continue reading

systems. Freedom for Hamlet Lavastida now!” she posted.

The 38-year-old artist has been in custody since June 26. State Security has made it known that he is being investigated for a conversation in a private chat in the Telegram app of the opposition group of artists 27N (27th November), in which he proposed marking bank notes with logos of the San Isidro Group and 27N, an initiative that never materialized.

Known for his critical works, the Cuban Government considers that Lavastida “has been inciting and calling for civil disobedience actions on public roads, using social networks and direct influence on others,” according to the official website, Razones de Cuba.

Article 202.1 of the Cuban Criminal Code prescribes a penalty of “deprivation of liberty from three months to one year or a fine of 100 to 300 dollars” for instigation to commit a crime, which it defines as “publicly inciting commission of a crime.”

On this subject Bisquet warned: “The expression of an idea in private, even if it foreshadows the possible commission of a crime, cannot be sanctioned if it does not materialize. In criminal law that is called a preparatory act. As a general rule, preparatory acts are not punishable.”

Lavastida returned to the Island on June 20, after completing a residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien art gallery in Berlin and was arrested six days later. Upon learning of the artist’s situation, the German cultural institution spoke out and described him as a “recognized visual artist” and demanded that the Cuban authorities “immediately annul his imprisonment.”

For months activists and human rights organizations have denounced an increase in the repression of dissidents, especially those linked to the world of art and entertainment, whom they claim are routinely subjected to arrests, jailings, and confinements under house arrest.

This past July, the call for Lavastida’s release reached the Arco art fair in Madrid, where the collective performance The ticketing burning the street was held, an action that Lavastida proposed to do in Cuba, but  which never took place.

Those demands have been joined by international entities and institutions that have denounced the situation or expressed concern, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United States Government, and the European Parliament.

The Cuban government, for its part, considers critical voices as agents in the pay of the United States, who seek to subvert public order and overthrow the socialist system.

Translated by Tomás A.

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

Huge Security Presence for Diaz-Canel’s Visit to Central Havana

A strong police operation on Monte Street due to Díaz-Canel’s visit to the Quisicuaba project on August 27, 2021. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 27 August 2021 – Several streets in Centro Habana woke up paralyzed this Friday morning by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s visit to the Quisicuaba center, shortly before the rain from Tropical Storm Ida began to fall on Havana. “There is a visitor,” muttered a neighbor in the area, which had more police officers and State Security agents than there were vegetables on the shelves of the neighboring market.

“The street corners crowded with of Security agents” was the preamble to the arrival of the president to the neighborhood of Los Sitio, according to the residents interviewed by 14ymedio. Even in nearby Monte Street, the informal vendors that normally abound in the portals were conspicuous by their absence this Friday, a lack that was lamented by the neighbors who had gone out in search of candles, matches and other products necessary to stay at home during the scourge of the Hurricane Ida that keeps the Cuban capital on hurricane watch.

The Cabildo Quisicuaba Sociocultural Project, located on Maloja Street, is directed by the deputy to the National Assembly of Cuba, Enrique Alemán Gutiérrez. “It is a religious association and also a community project, supposedly to help the community, distribute food, donations,” says a neighbor.

“Alemán did this religious community project and was sneaking around here and there as soon as an event started and fighting for his little bit. He spoke of the wonders of the Revolution and flattered and sucked up to continue reading

the leaders, he did not stop until they made him a deputy,” another resident of Los Sitios tells 14ymedio.

“This project raised its head extorting foreigners because that individual dedicated himself to the Yoruba religion and to making those who came from abroad holy. They made huge feasts, food of all kinds, and from that came the rivers of money he earned through these ceremonies,” the man describes. “It is a work of corruption from the very start, grabbing money from all sides.”

The neighborhood, one of the most densely populated in the capital, has for decades been an area with many housing problems, a large number of tenements and serious problems in its water supply infrastructure. Marginality, informal employment and the black market are an inseparable part of life in Los Sitios.

Díaz-Canel leaving the Quisicuaba project headquarters, surrounded by his security team. (Presidency Cuba / Twitter)

A good share of the residents in the area dedicate themselves to the purchase and resale of products from nearby stores such Ultra, the La Cubana hardware store and La Isla de Cuba. With tourism canceled due to the pandemic and mobility restrictions imposed on residents, many people have lost their way of earning a living and now survive by lining up at hard currency stores and reselling the merchandise.

“President Díaz-Canel signs the Guest Book where he recognizes the altruistic work carried out by this human sociocultural project from and to the community,” the official account of the Cuban Presidency tweeted this Friday, after announcing the visit of the president to the institution “that for more than 25 years has developed local projects” and that “includes 29 social works.”

In Quisicuaba, says another resident, “religious acts, drumming sessions and much more are held.” She speaks about Enrique Alemán Gutiérrez who is a doctor by profession and only ” practiced medicine for a short time because he had a serious problem in Public Health and was expelled,” she relates.

“Later, he was in official religious organizations and from there he ended up at the famous Summit in Panama, where Cuban civil society supposedly participated. But it was a gang of rabble, what he put together in that event was horrible, because he was one of those who led those scandals,” recalls the woman. “Oh, and also when Barack Obama was in Havana I saw him at several acts of revolutionary reaffirmation. He’s the worst.”

“They were stopping everyone who passed through that area asking what they were doing, where they lived,” a young man who walks through Monte every day to his workplace in Old Havana told this newspaper. “There were hundreds of security agents in civilian clothes sitting on the sidewalk having a Tanrico brand soda wrapped in a nylon bag and a snack, and another group was also doing the same in the Monte y Águila park,” he describes.

Shortly after Díaz-Canel left Quisicuaba, the Presidency released a video showing a group of people huddled together and not respecting the mandatory distancing to prevent contagion by covid. Along with that, where the president is clearly present, it was reported that he visited “with the population of Los Sitios, as always happens, and the population responds and accompanies him with enthusiasm and a very Cuban conga.”

The visit took place after the leader met with religious leaders and associations recognized by the Government last Tuesday. He also planned a meeting with Cuban Masons, but the Mason’s Grand Master Ernesto Zamora Fernández refused to participate. “We have decided not to attend the meeting called by the Presidency of the country, in order to preserve Masonic unity,” said the community leader in the document, released by several Masons on their social networks.

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

Cuban Masons Reject President Diaz-Canel’s Invitation to Meet

At his desk is the Grand Master Ernesto Zamora Fernández. (Grand Lodge of Cuba)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 24 August 2021 — “We have decided not to attend the meeting called by the country’s presidency (…), in order to preserve Masonic unity,” stated a letter signed by Grand Master Ernesto Zamora Fernández on Monday and disseminated by various Masons on their social networks. That community had been summoned this Tuesday to a meeting with President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Since July 11, the presidency and its entourage have visited communities and neighborhoods such as San Isidro and La Güinera, where the young Diubis Laurencio Tejeda was shot dead by the police during the protests on July 11. In La Güinera , Díaz-Canel posed in front of the altar in the home of the santera (priestess) Iliana Macías and walked with her through the streets holding her hand.

Díaz-Canel has met in recent weeks with journalists, members of the Council of Churches of Cuba and mass organizations such as the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) and the Young Communist Union (UJC). He also participated, on July 26, in volunteer work with several young people, where troubadours Eduardo Sosa and Ray Fernández were present.

“The letter in question is an example of the unbreakable union between all the Masons in response to IPH José Ramón Viñas Alonso, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree, determining to not call the Masons to meet [with the president]. The Sovereign Grand Commander himself alerted the Masonic community on continue reading

the subject, stating that the position adopted by the Grand Master is honorable in prioritizing the unity of the fraternity in such turbulent moments for the Homeland,” Mason Leo de la Torriente detailed on Twitter .

In addition, he points out that “the non-attendance of the Masonic institution to said meeting is not an act of rebellion, it is a clear sign of our unity.”

Viñas Alonso also sent a letter to Díaz-Canel after he ordered the revolutionaries to take to the streets on July 11 to confront the protesters.

“Today we see with sadness that something that was seen coming due to the discontent and deficiencies among the population has materialized in demonstrations throughout the country,” stated the letter that also defined as “unacceptable the call for a confrontation between Cubans.” The Masons also stated that they were “on the side of the Cuban people” and advocated “for peace, harmony and social justice.” After the dissemination of the document, Viñas Alonso was summoned for an interrogation at the police station on Zapata and C.

The brief statement from the Masons explains that the decision not to attend this Tuesday’s meeting with the presidency was taken after receiving “opinions and calls from the brothers” and based on “the situation created.”

Cuban actor Reinier Díaz Vega shared the letter on his Facebook profile with the text: “Either all or none.” In one of the comments, the writer Ángel Santiesteban replied: “I take my hat off to your wise decision. The Masonic unit above all else. History is being made.” Both Díaz and Santiesteban are part of the Cuban Masonic community.

Another member, Marcel Villegas Vazquez, said: “Once again our August Institution offers a demonstration that we are an indestructible chain, one where each of its links fights every day for our unity.”

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

Hope Is Reborn in Cuba

Protests in Santiago de Cuba on July 11. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luis Zuñiga, Miami, August 26, 2021 —  On July 11 the Cuban people handed the communist regime a death sentence. The Miguel-Diaz government knows this and so does the exile community. The steps that both sides are taking are representative of their expectations for the immediate future of Cuba.

Diaz-Canel, the Castros’ hand-picked successor, is touring schools, gymnasia and workplaces in an attempt to raise the regime’s political profile. His words reflect the predominant mood of fear, discouragement and defeatism within the party. They knew there was a segment of the population that strongly opposed and rejected them, but they did not imagine it was so enormous or so widespread.

On the other hand, the exile community is demonstrating its optimism about the future with a conference of prominent Cuban-American businesspeople sponsored by the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance. They have committed to offering their talent, expertise and investment resources as soon as freedom and democracy are restored on the island.

These prominent businesspeople have committed to establishing continue reading

a fund for the reconstruction of the Republic of Cuba that will provide “advice, credit support, financing and accounting systems to Cubans who wish to become entrepreneurs and thus develop, as soon as possible, thousands of small and medium-sized companies that will be owned by individuals and families and not by an oppressive state.”

The obstacle preventing the Cuban economy from taking off is the communist system. The people have shown that they do not want to continue with a failed experiment that has plunged them into poverty and subjected them to oppression. Their calls during the protests were not for food or medicine but for the end of the system. Everyone knows this is the problem but the regime resists change and, once again, has resorted to the only tool it has to hold onto power: repression.

Faced with violence, the popular response being discussed on the island is a national strike to bring the country to a halt and force the dictorial leadership to resign. The opposition has demonstrated that it is in the majority and, with this majority, that it can paralyze the country’s productive and commercial activities. Faced with enormous debt, lack of credit, lack of income, and a dying economy, the regime would find it very difficult to survive.

People know that under the communist regime they will never be able to improve their lives. Nor will they be able to fulfill their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. They know that the government’s tolerance of the private sector is simply a license granted today that will be taken away tomorrow at the whim of some official. They are also convinced that private enterprise and the market economy produce prosperity.

This is why the Miami businesspeople’s commitment to Cubans on the island is so important. It covers almost all the major sectors, including finance, banking, insurance, manufacturing, construction, energy, medicine, and even real estate and the press.

Persons and peoples are motivated to make great sacrifices, even at the risk of their freedom and life, when the goal is the happiness, well-being and security of their families. Those are the desires that have always moved humanity to undertake social and political struggles to achieve a better life. Today these desires are in the hopes and minds of millions of Cubans on the island who already know there is a better future awaiting them.

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

An Artist is the Latest Political Prisoner of the Cuban Regime: The Case of Hamlet Lavastida / Cubalex

Hamlet Lavastida’s image on his WhatsApp account.

Cubalex, 30 June 2021 — After spending the first 6 days after his arrival on the island in an isolation center, the artist Hamlet Lavastida, from the 27N [27th November] group, has been jailed in the Villa Marista State Security Investigation Unit. The artist has been under investigation since June 26 on the charge of instigation to commit a crime, file number 42/2021.

According to his friend, the writer Katherine Bisquet, his file is currently in the Attorney General’s Office. The criminal investigator in charge explained to Bisquet that yesterday a second procedural term began, also 72 hours long, pending the Order of the Prosecutor’s response. Lavastida will then be able to appoint a lawyer in the event that the case proceeds. Meanwhile he continues to be interrogated, without legal counsel, due to this investigative procedure.

Regarding this, we denounce the interrogation of Lavastida without the presence of a lawyer to advise him not to incriminate himself, and thus guarantee that he is not subjected to coercion to force him to testify.

This term of 7 days that they have imposed before he can obtain a lawyer is continue reading

a violation of the right to defense and of the Constitution itself.

We point to ARTICLE 95: In criminal proceedings people have the following guarantees, among others:

b) to have legal assistance from the beginning of the process;

c) to be presumed innocent until a final judgment is issued against them;

d) not to be victimized by violence or coercion of any kind to be forced to testify;

e) not to testify against oneself.

“The evidence” for which Hamlet is being investigated is a conversation on the private chat of the 27N group’s Telegram, illegally monitored and disclosed by Humberto López in the National Newscast.

In that (we repeat) private conversation, Hamlet mentions the idea of marking [existing Cuban] banknotes with stamps designed with the acronyms MSI and 27N, in order to extend their brand. “This idea was not followed up as a civic action by the 27N group, and was never made public by any member, including Lavastida,” explains Bisquet. We emphasize that the current Penal Code does not deem the act of writing on or marking bills a crime.

The act of using as evidence private conversations that were published in the media violates ARTICLE 48 of the Constitution: “All persons have the right to the respect of their personal and family privacy, their own image and voice, their honor and personal identity.”

By exposing these confidential chats, the press media, led by the Party, also violated the Privacy of Correspondence guaranteed in article 289 of the Cuban Penal Code. In the event that this crime is committed by “a public official or employee, with abuse of their position, the penalty is deprivation of liberty from six months to two years or a fine of two hundred to five hundred shares*.” Under the Cuban legal framework, it is Humberto, as a member of the Party’s Central Committee, who should answer to the law.

Therefore, our organization emphasizes that this evidence must be excluded for violating the Law of Criminal Procedure and constitutional rights. Section C of Article 95 provides that each person, as a guarantee of legal security, enjoys due process both in the judicial and administrative spheres and, consequently, enjoys the right to offer relevant evidence and request the exclusion of what has been obtained in violation of established law.

Also, having been broadcast in the press means a possible influence on the judges who saw that NTV program (also available online), which can prejudice Lavastida.

As to the crime for which he is being investigated, “instigation to commit a crime,” it was an idea that Lavastida expressed in a closed environment that never came to fruition. A private comment, even one linked to a future commission of a crime, should not be sanctioned if it is not consummated. In law, preparatory acts are generally not sanctioned, unless they are related to crimes against the security of the State.

Cubalex agrees with and shares this fragment of legal analysis published by Katherine Bisquet:

“Article 125 of the Criminal Code recognizes that the act of ’inciting another or others, by word or in writing, PUBLICLY OR PRIVATELY, is punishable as an act preparatory to executing any of the crimes’ included within the title of crimes against the security of the State.

“But if this article were applied to Hamlet’s idea of marking currency, the Cuban authorities would have to charge him with a different crime than Article 202’s Instigation to commit a crime. To apply article 125 to Lavastida they would have to accuse him of one of the crimes designed to protect the security of the Cuban state. And this would confirm that accusing Hamlet of a crime against the security of the State for offering the idea of marking bills with the logos of the civic groups MSI and 27N would be about politically motivated repression.”

Hamlet Lavastida is today a prisoner of conscience.

*Translator’s note: Cuba’s Penal Code sets fines as a number of ’quotas’ or shares, with the value of one share defined in a separate section.  In this way, the value of all fines in the code can be adjusted with a single change.

Translated by Tomás A.

The Central Bank of Cuba Legalizes Cryptocurrencies in National Transactions

In the text published this Thursday, the entity declares itself free of any liability that may arise in cases of scams.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, August 27, 2021 — Cuban authorities finally approved regulating the use of cryptocurrencies in national transactions and will grant licenses for service providers that operate with these virtual assets. The resolution, published yesterday in the Official Gazette, will take effect on September 15.

The text, signed by the head of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), Marta Sabina Wilson González, indicates that the entity must establish “the use of certain virtual assets in commercial transactions” in “operations related to financial, exchange, collection, or payment activities” within or from Cuban territory.

The permission of the BCC will be essential so that “financial institutions and other legal entities” can use “virtual assets among themselves and with natural persons, to carry out monetary and commercial operations, and exchange and redemption.”

The entity has warned of the risks of operations with virtual assets, due to their high volatility, and because continue reading

they are carried out on the internet, with the lack of regulation and supervision that this implies.

The new legal framework is based on Decree-Law 317 regarding “the prevention and detection of operations in the fight against money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.” The rule, approved in 2013, indicates that the BCC is the competent authority to act against this type of crime and for this it must establish the guidelines to prevent it.

In the text published this Thursday, the entity declares itself free of any liability that may arise in cases of scams.

“Natural persons assume the risks and responsibilities that in the civil and criminal system derive from operating with virtual assets and virtual asset service providers that operate outside the Banking and Financial System, even when transactions with virtual assets are not prohibited between such people,” it says.

In May of this year, Miguel Díaz-Canel warned that the possibility of regulating cryptocurrencies was very real and its “convenience” was being analyzed. In the midst of a landscape of serious crisis and lack of liquidity, virtual currency opens up some possibilities, but it also carries risks and uncertainty.

The deficit in the balance of payments, the non-participation in multilateral organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, its high debt, repeated defaults, and the effects of the US embargo, hinder Cuba’s access to financial markets and its international transactions. But the authorities have allowed cryptocurrencies to operate only in the national orbit.

On the island, users of this type of asset have grown notably, and it is estimated that at least 10,000 people use bitcoins.

The BCC warned months ago of the scams that could occur in this area, and indicated that the operations carried out by a list of companies it designated have “little or no transparency and hide behind apparently technical but meaningless verbiage.”

The companies were Mind Capital, Mirror Trading, Arbistar, Qubit Life / Qubit Tech, X-Toro and Trust Investing, the most popular in the country with tens of thousands of partners. Its director in Cuba, Ruslan Concepción, was detained in April of this year for alleged “illegal economic activity.”

After his arrest, several Cubans linked to the company were investigated and some assets were confiscated from them. The platform is accused by several international analysts of operating “a Ponzi scheme — it doesn’t have a real product and pays its investors with their incoming money,” although its affiliates in Cuba deny this.

Some experts consider that cryptocurrencies could be a solution for Cubans who do not trust the peso but have little access to dollars since remittances have been reduced due to the limitations imposed by the Donald Trump Administration. But they also call for caution because of scams that occur in this area.

Among Cuban cryptocurrency users, opinions have not been long in coming. Michel Aragón, who has a finance channel on YouTube, has been very annoyed by the control that the BCC will impose on both companies and citizens who want to participate in the system, while Erich García, founder of Bitremesas, is optimistic and thinks that an opportunity has opened up.

“Yes, I’m Cuban. Yes, I use cryptocurrencies a lot. Yes, I’m a natural person. Yes, I’m going to request the necessary licenses to operate with that” digital asset. “I live in Cuba and I must comply with the laws of Cuba. If it doesn’t fit me, I’ll pass. Just normal,” he told his followers.

Translated by Tomás A.

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

‘Let the Abuse of Power End’ Demands Cuban Artist Yomil with His New Video Clip

On Thursday, Yomil launched ‘De Cuba soy’, a song that he described as “the most important of my career.” (Instagram)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 27 August 2021 — Cuban reggaetoner Roberto Hidalgo Puentes, known as Yomil, launched De Cuba soy* this Thursday, a song that he described as “the most important of my career” and which he dedicates to the July 11 protests and to claiming his roots.

The video was launched at 5 pm on the YouTube platform and this morning it already has more than 82,000 views. At the start, the singer says “This is about showing the world the injustices that are experienced in Cuba” while showing images of last month’s demonstrations and shouting for freedom.

The lyrics vindicate Cuban historical figures, such as José Martí and Antonio Maceo, and legendary artists, such as Celia Cruz and Benny Moré. But also his colleague, the reggaetoner El Dany — with whom he formed one of the most successful urban music duos — who died in July 2020 from what Yamil has always denounced as medical negligence.

“Today’s is also for you, my little brother,” he wrote on Twitter with the hashtag “forbidden to forget.” The lyrics of the song insist on the idea: “End the abuse of power and injustice and out of respect for Dany I keep asking for justice,” he sings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95URlrWSFlc

In the images one can also see other artists linked to the San Isidro Movement, including Maykel Osorbo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, among others, along with images of repressive acts from the beginning of the Revolution through this July, when more than 700 people linked to the demonstrations against the Government were arrested.

The chorus, which is repeated several times in the more than five minutes of the song, sums up well the demands of those marches that began in San Antonio de los Baños and later spread to dozens of cities on the island. “I’m from Cuba, brave like a mambí. I’m from Cuba, surviving since I was born. I’m from Cuba, I want a change I want a future.”

The artist also appeals in his lyrics to the police and the Cuban Army, whom he reproaches for their work but with a sympathetic wink: “Remember police when you said you want to be my friend and now I see you treating me like your enemy. When you take off the uniform in silence you cry because what the people are asking for is what you yearn for the most.”

The reggaetoner quickly received criticism from some users close to the regime and received, he said, threats for having used images of José Martí. “They can use the image of the martyrs for their political acts and doctrine. They can manipulate history and books, but then a Cuban artist who shows it by exposing the truth of the Cuban reality cannot do it,” he responded.

In addition, Yomil insisted that he is not going to leave Cuba or be intimidated. “For those of the Communist Party who began with their attacks. I do not plan to live in Miami, I bet everything to live in my country, that is why I cry out for what ordinary Cubans ask for: freedom. So even if they don’t want it they have to accept it.”

The video clip of the song was created by Yimit Ramírez, who three years ago was involved in a controversy with the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC). The organization withdrew his film I Want to Make a Movie from the Special Presentation section of the Filmmaker’s Exhibition when the officials responsible for programming detected a dialogue which, in their opinion, was disrespectful toward José Martí, who “is sacred.”

In one scene, one of the characters declared himself to not be a follower of Martí and described the Cuban hero as a “giant piece of shit” and a “fag,” which made the director a target of criticism from the official press.

*Translator’s note: Partial lyrics in English from Today in 24

Brave as a mambí / I’m from Cuba / Surviving since I was born / I’m from Cuba / I want a change I want a future (I want a future) / I am Cuban / I have from Congo and from karabali /I am from the land of Hatuey, a land that once Spanish colonized, land of my African ancestors / Land of mambises who fought and sacrificed, Martí and Maceo dreamed of it and that dream was taken from them / I’m from the 21st century generation / The beginning of something so healthy of something honest and pure / It is time to say the right thing, that is why I manifest myself with content within many contexts

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