Translating Cuba

Cuban Filmmakers Say Change in Leadership at Film Institute is Not Enough

The ACC was formed in June following a controversial action by cultural officials. (Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers/Facebook)

EFE (via 14ymedio) Havana, 1 November 2023 — The independent Assembly of Cuban Filmmakers (ACC) claimed on Sunday that the problem with the country’s official film institute “is not its president” — a reference to a recent change in leadership at the organization – but with its industrial, financial and artistic underpinnings, which ACC says “have collapsed.”

“What matters is not who the public face of the organization is but what that person represents and projects,” wrote the ACC in response to the recent announcement by the Ministry of Culture that journalist Alexis Triana had been appointed president of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

In its statement the ACC described Triana as an official who “has actively and consciously contributed to the direction that we as filmmakers have questioned.” It added, however, that this is about “much more than one person; it is an issue about methodology.” continue reading

ACC described the new head of the country’s official film institute as an official who “has played an active and conscious part in a direction that we, as filmmakers, have questioned.”

“ICAIC — an organization at the center of a system controlled for decades by the Ministry of Culture – has, to a large extent, been destroyed by the same [government] leaders who appoint and remove its presidents without realizing that they are not the real problem.”

ACC emphasized, “What matters is not who the public face of the organization is but rather what that person represents and projects.” In its opinion, the issue is not who is president but rather the institute’s “complete subordination to a cultural bureaucracy that paralizes and nullifies it.”

“All the structural components that make up the Cuban cinema system are weakened or broken,” the ACC maintains.

“Without autonomy, with few creators on its payroll, without movie theaters, without resources, without a true international profile,” it argues, “there is little that can be done to protect filmmakers from this systematic exercise of intimidation and control, which is embedded in the very DNA of Cuban cultural and public policy.”

The ACC was formed in June in response to a controversial action by cultural officials. “A solution to the crisis of Cuban cinema cannot come from the same hands that created it,” the group states. “Therefore, whoever happens to preside over the ICAIC is nothing more than a side note.”

It also added, “If this pattern of command and control does not change, if relationships of respect, a desire for understanding and dialogue are not established, our differences as filmmakers and as Cubans will continue to worsen,” it adds.

“If this pattern of command and control does not change, if relationships of respect, a desire for understanding and dialogue are not established, our differences as filmmakers and as Cubans will continue to worsen”

The ACC emphasizes that its existence does not depend on “those who refuse to face our real problems.” It advocates continuing to work towards “the complex, diverse, inclusive, controversial and pluralistic cinema in which we believe.”

The ACC was formed after officials censored the documentary Fito’s Havana by director Juan Pin Vilar and later broadcast an unauthorized version of the film on state television.

The group objected to these actions in an open letter signed by more than 600 film professionals, among them the director Fernando Pérez as well as the actors Jorge Perugorría and Luis Alberto García.

Since then, more than fifty union representatives have met with officials from the Ministry of Culture, ICAIC, the government and the Cuban communist party to discuss these and other issues, including a new law on cinema.

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‘Giron’ Breaks the Silence of the Official Cuban Press with Details About Seven Femicides in 2023

Olaida Casanova and Anay Perez, above; and Ruselay Castle and Adela Green, below. (Collage)

14ymedio, Havana, 18 November 2023 — Cuba’s official press revealed that, in the first half of 2023, seven women were murdered in the province of Matanzas. The data, published this Saturday by the Girón newspaper, breaks with officialdom’s usual silence on femicides in Cuba and offers details until now kept secret, such as the ages of the deceased – between 20 and 57 years old – and the causes of death: wounds caused by a knife, in most cases.

Girón’s article points out, citing a “preliminary statistical report,” that in 2022 the Provincial Legal Medicine Service recorded seven femicides; in 2021, four; and in 2020, three, “whose basic causes of death were strangulation, burns from flames and assault with a blunt object.”

So far this year, 75 women have been victims of murderous violence against women on the Island, according to 14ymedio ’s record – compared with the list of independent platforms. Of them, eight are from the province of Matanzas. These are Yainalis Pérez, Mercedes Vasallo, Anay Pérez, Yunisleve Fernández, Adela Verdecia, Ruselay Castillo, Osladys Núñez and Olaida Casanova, none of whose deaths were reported by the official press at the time. continue reading

Everything indicates, the media acknowledges, that “in the last year cases of murderous violence against women have increased or, at least, have become more visible.” However, and although it admits that there are “publications that cause chills” on the Internet, Girón does not attribute the visibility of the situation to the press and independent observatories, but to the official “women’s support networks.”

In the Penal Code there is no article or criminal type that defines the exercise of violence against women

“In the Penal Code there is no article or criminal type that defines the exercise of violence against women,” provincial prosecutor María Elena Govín, of the Department of Criminal Procedures, admitted, without hesitation. The absence of a legal tool against violence against women, denounced on numerous occasions by Cuban feminists, has found a deaf ear in the Government, which is why Govín admits that it is “a debt” of the authorities to Cuban women.

Yuleikis Hernández, Govín’s colleague in the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, was quick to qualify the prosecutor’s observations to Girón: “We cannot speak of an excessive increase, at least in Matanzas,” he assured, despite the fact that both official and independent figures disprove that.

On the contrary, Hernández affirms that in “previous periods” the situation has been more serious and, although he did not give other details, he denounced the existence of a “sexist, possessive pattern” that is repeated on the Island, in addition to “threats.” and “injuries” that authorities must frequently deal with. Other women, he lamented, “do not report or seek help,” but rather “protect the aggressor and justify him.”

The newspaper cites the testimony of a doctor from Matanzas who asked not to reveal her name, the victim of an attempted attack by her partner on June 4, 2022. The man, also a doctor, who arrived home drunk at 5:30 in the morning – on the upper floor above his office – and slapped her several times and broke her glasses.

“I don’t know where I got the strength from and I managed to get him off of me. With one push he fell sitting on the couch and I was able to leave my house. Luckily, the door or the gate was not closed, because when we struggled he told me he had come to kill me. I ran out with only a sweater, without a bra, in very short shorts and without glasses, I am nearsighted,” the woman said.

Very serious cases of violence against women have been recorded in the province. Although not all of them died, there has been at least one “kidnapping” of a pregnant woman

The intervention of a neighbor, who hid her in her house, managed to prevent the worst. But her partner destroyed all her belongings, burned her clothes and started a fire to which the firefighters had come. Girón does not explain how the story ended or if the aggressor was legally prosecuted, but instead focuses on highlighting who should be asked for help in these cases: the official Federation of Cuban Women and its Violence Council.

Niurka La Osa Roldán, an official in Matanzas for this organization, also acknowledged that very serious cases of violence against women have been recorded in the province. Although not all of them died, there has been at least one “kidnapping” of a pregnant woman, whose mother asked the Police for help.

The death of Olaida Casanova, a resident of Cárdenas, was the most recent feminicide recorded in Matanzas by independent platforms. The woman was murdered by her partner on September 21. Murdered that same month was Osladys Núñez, 43, about whom the observatories were unable to gather more information.

Ruselay Castillo, 31 years old and resident of the central Matanzas town of Humberto Álvarez, was murdered by her partner. Castillo, a housewife and native of the town of Santa Marta, was the mother of two teenagers. The first of the eight women murdered this year in Matanzas, Yailanis Pérez, was 36 years old and she was found dead at the end of January, after being reported missing for several days.

The article published this Saturday by Girón constitutes an exception. Despite multiple demands, Cuban authorities continue to keep secret the official figures of deaths due to violence against women on the Island.

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Migration Conferences for Castroism

Those first conferences were aimed at dividing the exiles from the mass of migrants who were not political. (Presidencia de Cuba)

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, November 18, 2023 — The ability of the Island totalitarianism, despite its long agony, to develop strategies that to some extent extend its existence is really remarkable, a reality that is evidenced by the call for a Fourth Conference on the Nation and Emigration, two concepts that the dictatorship interprets at its convenience.

We must not lose sight of the fact that Castroism, in this conference and the previous ones, continues to attribute to itself the representation of the nation. Fidel Castro, from the day of the insurrection victory, on January 1, 1959, made public his claim to synthesize the nation and his Government in his person, as if he were a kind of trinity that symbolized what was most transcendental, the homeland.

Castroism, when it was politically convenient, galvanized its supporters by selecting those who went abroad and opponents as the enemy to hate. Yes, to hate. A simple act such as leaving your country in search of a better life was described as treason, and the traitor could not even give away his belongings. These were confiscated, and he was warned that he could not return to the abandoned paradise. continue reading

Undoubtedly, this manipulation of the environment, to the point of turning it into a lie, has yielded great fruits.

Undoubtedly, this manipulation of the environment, to the point of turning it into a lie, has yielded great fruits. A notable part of the population voluntarily bowed to the regime, while another sector, no less relevant, confronted it or decided to leave the country, with all the official repudiation that both actions implied.

To top it off, a revolutionary could not correspond with an exile, particularly if the exile resided in the United States. I remember a lady who said to her crying sister: “Don’t write to us because that could harm us.” However, a few months later, she was asking for assistance through their mother. That double standard has always been there for those who obey the Government.

The regime’s propaganda apparatus worked intensively on the population to incorporate into the popular creed the certainty that Fidel, the Revolution and Cuba were the same thing, so much so that the supreme dictator said: “Revolution is unity, it is independence, it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and for the world, which is the basis of our patriotism, our socialism and our internationalism.”

Those first conferences were aimed at dividing the exiles from the mass of migrants that did not declare themselves politically. In those times, potential aid did not matter; the one who left the Island, unless they showed regret and collaborated with the Government, was still an enemy.

The dictatorship believed that it could be self-sufficient and that the population was willing to die of hunger for the dreams of its pharaoh

Then, the dictatorship believed that it could be self-sufficient and that the population was willing to die of hunger for the dreams of its pharaoh.

From now on, other rules will apply. Exiles will be able to mutate into emigrants if they are willing to rehabilitate themselves by investing in Cuba. Of course, you should not worry that the conditions of the country are more chaotic than when you abandoned it, and that your assets could be confiscated by decree, due to the chronic lack of legal security.

Trusting the Cuban regime is a crass mistake. The mental structure of its leaders has only known how to take advantage; hence, they changed national sovereignty for the billionaire Soviet subsidies, which, after the USSR was exhausted, they would associate with a military coup until leading Venezuela into bankruptcy.

Throughout these more than six decades the regime has squandered billions of dollars, without forgetting that a good part of this fortune was wasted by the heirs of the ruling class or is in the bank accounts of corrupt officials.

That money does not only come from the Soviet and Venezuelan funds. There is also money from foreign investors who trusted the promises of Castroism, particularly from Spanish businessmen, although these had their investments guaranteed by Madrid, a condition that emigrants who invest will not have.

The Castro-Díaz-Canel Government is only trying to survive. The principles went to the garbage can of History, as the maximum leader liked to say. Yesterday’s enemies become allies if they are able to pay the toll assigned to them. For Castroism, even in the life of its commander, everything has a price, which many of us are not willing to pay.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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For the Neighbors Sentenced to Prison for the Death of Three Girls, the Blame Belongs to the Cuban State

Current state of the home of the convicted, located at Vives 102, in Old Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 14 November 2023 — The Supreme Court of Havana sentenced Adrian Frómeta González and his wife, Regla Isabel Rodríguez López, residents of Vives 102, between Águila and Revillagigedo, Old Havana, to seven years in prison for reckless homicide of the three girls who died after the collapse of a balcony of their building in January 2020. Both Frómeta and her family defend their innocence and insist that several state entities are trying to make them “take the blame.”

“During the investigation into the death of the three girls, my wife and I appeared as witnesses at the Picota station. A year later, when we were summoned for the second time in Criminal Investigation, we were already the accused,” Frómeta tells 14ymedio. He also made the trial documents available to this newspaper. “When we asked for explanations, all they told us was that during a Criminal Investigation meeting with the Secons Group – a state-owned specialized construction services company – and the Housing Directorate, we were pointed out as those responsible,” he emphasizes.

Alain Wilfrido Frómeta González and Abimael Peña Prado – brother and uncle of Frómeta, respectively – were also prosecuted and sentenced to six years for having renovated the structures of the second floor of the building, on which, according to the authorities, the stability of the balcony depended. Finally, the Court also sentenced Lesmer Chang Cárdenas, one of the builders of the Secons brigade, who helped the family carry out the repairs. continue reading

They are never going to blame each other, because ultimately they are all State agencies. They just decided to blame us and invented all that paperwork

“They are never going to blame each other, because ultimately they are all State agencies. They simply decided to blame us and invented all that paperworks that points to us being guilty of three homicides, when we did nothing,” Frómeta insists.

According to the minutes of the Provincial Court consulted by 14ymedio, signed on 14 September 2022, the authorities had decreed in 2019 the demolition of the second floor of the building due to the danger of collapse. In fact, the family that previously lived there left the house due to the poor condition it was in. A brigade of Secons – whose workers included Chang – was in charge of lowering the walls to a height of two meters and removing debris.

“These acts were taken advantage of by the accused Regla Isabel Rodríguez López,” alleges the document, “who with the objective of taking over said area and without any legal authorization (…) permanently closed access to said area with blocks and cement to the property from Vives Street and conditioned (sic) it from inside her house to ensure that she was the owner of said area.” The text also states that Rodríguez was fined 500 pesos for blocking access to the second floor.

Interior damage suffered by the ground floor of the house due to the works that Secons carried out above it. (Courtesy)

Together with Frómeta, her brother, her uncle and the worker Chang – who, the document clarifies that he, “worked in a personal capacity” and not as an employee of the Secons – the woman asked for the demolition of some load-bearing walls, including the one that made counterweight to the balcony, which ended up collapsing, the minutes state. In Chang’s case, the Prosecutor’s Office indicated that he was “of interest to the police” due to having a criminal record of robbery with violence or intimidation, and injuries.

The result of the first trial was a sentence of 12 years for Rodríguez and 10 for the rest of those involved. They were also ordered to pay compensation of several thousand pesos to the families of the deceased girls, in addition to provisional house arrest or a bail of 5,000 pesos.

After the appearance before the Provincial Court and the negotiation of the sentences with the authorities – which were reduced to seven and five years – the four residents of Vives 102 filed an appeal, requesting a review of the sentence, but the The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and did not reduce the prison time.

“The accused acted without foreseeing the possibility of this result occurring, even though they should have foreseen it. Therefore, they are criminally responsible,” the document states.

The people who lived above were even given a subsidy to repair the house, but they never did anything. There were also no inspectors to check whether they were using the subsidy correctly.

“Now we are just waiting for them to call us and tell us that we have to surrender. There is no longer a solution, the Supreme Court’s decision is final and cannot be appealed again,” laments Frómeta.

According to the man, his wife, the owner of the first floor of the property – originally two floors – had been requesting help from the municipal and provincial Housing authorities since at least 2014 due to the poor condition of the second floor, which affected her home. “The people who lived up there were even given a subsidy to repair the house, but they never did anything. There were also no inspectors to check whether they were using the subsidy correctly,” he recalls.

“When they finally decreed the demolition, they brought in a brigade of Secons who lowered the walls and knocked down the roof, but they left the balconies and eaves. There was also no supervision of that work, and they did what they wanted,” he emphasizes. “For a time they even stopped work to help with city construction for the 500th anniversary of Havana. One day they were taken near the Calixto García hospital without even leaving signs that the second floor was being demolished,” he adds.

The dwelling after the balcony collapse. One of the victims died instantly, while the other two died in the hospital. (14ymedio)

With the disappearance of the second floor, Rodríguez’s house began to leak and, together with her husband and her family, they decided to “pour a melt” (cement mixture) on the floor of the house above to cover the holes.

“That was the only thing we did. We did not knock down any walls and they have no evidence either. But if we are the culprits they are freed from responsibility and from having to compensate the girls’ families,” says Frómeta.

When asked if he believes that the relatives of the three girls crushed by the balcony in 2020 — María Karla Fuentes, Lisnavy Valdés Rodríguez and Rocío García Nápoles, all aged 11 — trust the courts’ version, Frómeta says he is not sure. “They are the sufferers, and they need someone to blame,” he acknowledges.

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A Cuban Woman Is Murdered in Havana by Her Ex-Partner, a Prisoner Who Was Released

So far this year, 76 women have been victims of sexist violence on the Island. (Cubanos por el Mundo/Facebook)

14ymedio, Havana, 19 November 2023 — A woman identified as Sarai died this Saturday and her mother was seriously injured in the municipality of Cerro, Havana, after a knife attack by Sarai’s former partner, an inmate who had been released from prison hours earlier.

As CubaNet was able to confirm, the events occurred on Salvador Street, between Parque and Bella Vista, in the Popular Canal Council of the municipality of Havana. Sources told the digital media that Sarai’s brother was also injured, although “it is unknown” if the injuries he received “represent a danger to his life.” The mother of the deceased was admitted to the Calixto García Hospital and is reported to be in serious condition.

Videos circulating on social networks showed that the femicide occurred on Saturday afternoon and that a crowd of neighbors and several police officers arrived. continue reading

Previously he had threatened and attacked her, but she did not report it out of fear. Now he was released and has killed her

“She had broken up with him and he didn’t accept it. He is a very violent man,” said a neighbor, who added that the woman had received previous threats from the killer. “Previously he had threatened and attacked her, but she didn’t report it out of fear. Now he was released and has killed her,” she added.

So far this year, 76 women have been victims of sexist violence on the Island, according to the 14ymedio record, which matches the list of independent platforms. Just a week ago, Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo verified the femicide of Ana María Laria, in Playa de Guanabo, Havana, on September 22, and that of Maylin Fernández Sánchez, 43, between November 4 and 5 in Güines, Mayabeque.

The sexist murders registered to date independently – in the absence of official statistics – represent more than double those quantified in 2022, a total of 36. The activists insist that a “state of emergency for gender-based violence” be declared and regret that the Government has not taken action in this regard.

In addition, they advocate for a comprehensive law against gender violence — machista murder is not listed in the Criminal Code — and the implementation of protocols to prevent these events, as well as the creation of shelters and rescue systems for women and their children who are in danger.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Excepting Cuba, Latin America Will Receive a Record Number of Remittances in 2023, Due to the Increase in Migration

The greatest amount of remittances to Latin America comes from the US, followed by Spain. (EFE/Lenin Nolly/Archive)

14ymedio, Madrid, November 16, 2023 — The sending of remittances to Latin America will reach a record figure in 2023, with 155 billion dollars, 9.5% more than the previous year, according to estimates made by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in a report published this Wednesday. The document does not include data from Cuba, where, despite the spectacular growth in emigration, the number is contracting, according to previous data from Havana Consulting Group.

The IDB report explains that the highest increase occurs in Central America, with 13.2% more than the previous year, especially driven by the sending of money to Nicaragua, which grew an impressive 59% compared to the previous year, with the majority coming from the United States. Last year, 73.5% of remittances to the Caribbean and Central America were sent from the US, while Spain appears as the second most important origin, although at a distant 11.4% of the total.

“The sustained growth of remittances reflects new intraregional migratory flows and the contribution that migrants make to their countries of origin,” the report says. However, migration data contrasts with data on the sending of remittances. Emigration increased by 8.6% in the Caribbean in the last year and only 1.17% in Central America. However, in the Caribbean the money flow grew by only 2.6%, the region with the smallest increase of the four analyzed. continue reading

Remittances from 2018 to 2023 calculated by the Inter-American Development Bank. (IDB)

At the end of the year, the Caribbean will have received – if the forecasts are met – 18.2 billion dollars in remittances. The largest increase comes from Haiti – consistent with the strong increase in emigrants – with 5.1%, followed by the Dominican Republic (2.7%), which receives the most money, exceeding 10.125 billion dollars. On the other end, Trinidad and Tobago, which in 2022 had increased significantly, moderated in 2023 and increased by just 0.7%.

The second region – in this case a country – in growth of remittances is Mexico, where an increase of 9.8% is expected, although by volume it is the one that receives significantly the most money, with 62.247 billion dollars, almost all of it from the United States. The amount represents a historical high for the North American country.

The last block is South America, where this year the figure will increase, although only by 7.9%. Here, Argentina is experiencing the greatest growth (26.3%), according to the IDB analysis due to the “strong devaluation faced by that country’s currency and which forces migrants to send more resources to support their families.” Despite this, it is not among the country that receives the most dollars by quantity, with barely 1.5 billion dollars, compared to the 10.2 that arrive in Colombia – which isfirst by volume – where the total rose 8.2% compared to 2022.

In this area, it is worth highlighting the lack of data from the country with the most migration on the continent, Venezuela, which has more than 7 million expatriates. To estimate the receipt of money from this country, data from the consulting firm Ecoanalítico was used, which estimates the amount at 2.5 billion dollars.

It is the same operation that must be done with Cuba, which, being one of the countries where migration has increased the most in relation to its population in recent years, with some 323,000 departures to the United States were registered in 2022 and the trend continues in 2023. But remittances have decreased due to a set of factors. Among them is a change in the migration model, which indicates that families increasingly tend to leave the Island with all their members, while before, only one member used to leave and send money to those who stayed.

Another possible explanation is in the payment of the debt that Cuban migrants acquire with their family abroad, often the lender of the money to make the trip, which has become more expensive to a level never seen before for the flight between the Island and Nicaragua, where the majority then continue along the “route of the volcanos” towards the United States. Many Cubans spend the first months of their exile returning this amount to those who advanced it for them.

Growth in remittances from 2018 to 2023 calculated by the Inter-American Development Bank. (IDB)

Finally, the decline in the population on the Island itself implies that the volume of money decreases. As Cubans leave their country, sending remittances is less necessary.

These ideas would explain that between 2019 and 2023, remittances fell by 45%, according to a report published in September by the organization Cuba Siglo 21, signed by economist Emilio Morales. In that same period, money sending according to the IDB report grew by 65% in the rest of the continent.

According to Morales’ document, only 9.18 billion dollars arrived in Cuba in the four years from 2019 to 2022, which the author interpreted as a change of intention of the diaspora, according to which the objective is to remove relatives from their country, not helping them while they remain there.

In total, during the last three decades, the Island has received a total of 52.252 billion dollars in remittances and another 50 billion in consumer goods, indicated the report, which accused Gaesa, the state monopoly of the military that manages much of the economy, of “undermining” that island’s economy, and spoke to the potential of Cubans living abroad when it comes to rebuilding the country in the future.

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The Cuban Regime Seeks Its Salvation in the Investments of Emigrants

La Carreta restaurant, located on 21st Street on the corner of K, in the heart of El Vedado, in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Olea Gallardo, Havana, 19 November 2023 — Those who for decades were called “worms,” “traitors” and “counterrevolutionaries” have become the great hope of the Cuban regime to save the disastrous economy. A main objective seems to guide the Government of Cuba at the conference it is holding with emigrants this weekend in Havana: to attract them to invest in the Island and legalize a process that has already begun stealthily with small entrepreneurs from the diaspora.

Despite Cuban law and the U.S. “embargo” that prohibit it for the time being, several exiles have opened businesses in Cuba using the names of residents on the Island and, in some cases, in association with local authorities. Among them are the private restaurants La Carreta, Antojos and some others in Havana, in addition to the Diplomarket shopping center, all controlled by U.S. residents, with the approval or participation of the regime.

Although he did not allude to the current situation, the director general of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Ernesto Soberón, spoke openly in an interview with Juventud Rebelde last Sunday.

Similarly, Reuters confirmed it by quoting a “senior official” of the Foreign Relations Ministry: “Cuba wants to take advantage of its growing population abroad in search of new investments that boost the economy.” continue reading

Despite Cuban law and the U.S. “embargo” that prohibit it for the moment, several exiles have opened businesses in Cuba using the names of residents on the Island and, in some cases, in association with local authorities

In the Nation and Emigration Conference, the first in 19 years, more than 400 people are participating, many of whom — no less than 40%, according to Soberón — have double residence, in Cuba and abroad. (According to the EFE agency, most of the participants whose identities transcend national boundaries are people linked to solidarity with Cuba groups abroad). “This did not happen before, which is the result of the modification of the Constitution that now recognizes effective citizenship, and there can be several,” the official insisted, talking about the 2013 constitutional reform.

Soberón added to this the measures taken last July – the extension of the validity of ordinary passports from six to ten years, the elimination of the mandatory extension every two years and the reduction of the price to apply for it – as part of the same strategy of approaching Cubans abroad. He did not name another one, which many consider as an extension of the penalty applied to most nationals who left the country: the requirement to show the Cuban passport for exiles before 1971, who were exempted from the perpetual control exercised by the political police over the emigrants).

Most have set up hotels, restaurants and other shops, many of them with remarkable success

The authorities now publicly insist that Cubans abroad must invest in their country of origin, but the truth is that it has been happening stealthily for years.

Most have set up hotels, restaurants and other shops, many of them with remarkable success. One of them is Frank Cuspinera Medina, vice president of Las Américas TCC Corporation, based in Miami, a group to which Diplomarket belongs, called, sarcastically, the “Cuban Costco.”

Cuspinera Medina is domiciled in Florida but also in El Vedado. His name appears in a letter that several Cuban entrepreneurs sent in 2021 to U.S. President Joe Biden, asking him to lift the sanctions against the Government of the Island, which harmed their businesses. In the letter he did not appear as a member of Las Américas, but of Iderod Servicios Constructivos, based in Cuba.

This last firm is not on the list of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) of the regime, but it is a company with his name, Cuspinera SURL LVI, dedicated to “providing e-commerce platform services,” the same as a branch of Las Américas TCC.

Al cubano Obel Martínez, dueño de La Carreta, le fue concedida la nacionalidad estadounidense. (Facebook) — Cuban Obel Martínez, owner of La Carreta, was granted US nationality. (Facebook)

Reinaldo Rivero is another Cuban resident in the U.S. with a tentacle in Havana: although his business is registered in the name of his mother, he is the real owner, with a foreign partner, of the busy Antojos restaurant and bar and a security agency that serves the establishments of the Espada Alley, on Peña Pobre Street in Old Havana.

A third name, with a dazzling triumph, is Obel Martínez, owner of La Carreta. Remodeled and with a rich gastronomic offer, the emblematic restaurant of El Vedado reopened in private hands last June and immediately became a place among the habananeros for the emerging middle class.

By then, Martínez had opened another business, Mojito-Mojito, in the heart of Old Havana, praised on travel pages for the owner’s enthusiasm and kindness.

His signature is in place 5,639 of the registration of MSMEs with the name Mojito Martínez and was approved in the last quarter of 2022. Precisely in December of that same year, Cuban Obel Martínez was granted U.S. nationality. In fact, according to a close source who requests anonymity, he continues to retain his residence in Miami, Florida.

“Obel fled from Castroism and now lives from it, enjoying at the same time all the benefits and opportunities of the American dream: he plays at capitalism from Havana, with the support of the local authorities,” says the same source, who echoes the discomfort created by this situation in some sectors of the regime itself, particularly within the Communist Party of Cuba, where there is a debate about the privileges granted to this new class of businessmen.

As a local development project, the source adds, Obel received a loan of 10 million pesos from the municipal government, specifically at the 250 branch of the Metropolitan Bank, located on Línea Street in El Vedado. As confirmed by official television in a report last September, La Carreta “was restored thanks to the collaboration with the government of the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución.”

Obel fled from Castroism and now lives from it, enjoying at the same time all the benefits and opportunities of the American dream: he plays at capitalism from Havana, with the support of the local authorities

The governor of the municipality, Rolando López Jiménez, explains that “he assumed the responsibility for rescuing the facility to provide a better service,” in addition to facilitating the hiring of employees and rehabilitating the apartments located above the establishment.

Obel Martínez does not appear in the report, but 14ymedio has verified that he is the one who receives the clientele of both La Carreta and Mojito-Mojito, presenting himself as the owner.

Cuban law does not allow a U.S. citizen to own a company on the Island, although the words of Ernesto Soberón in Juventud Rebelde suggest that this is about to change. However, there is another greater inconvenience, if possible: according to the embargo laws, as a U.S. resident a person is also banned from doing business in Cuba, unless they have a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

So far, the only American who has OFAC’s permission to establish a company in Cuba is John Kavulich, and he keeps his business secret, in addition to Hugo Cancio, from the online shopping site Katapulk, who has obtained a license to export vehicles from the United States.

As U.S. Treasury officials explained, following a meeting of Cuban businessmen in Miami last September, several conditions must be met in order not to break the law. Entrepreneurs residing in Cuba cannot create companies in the U.S. to sell their products or buy goods directly from U.S. companies. Similarly, Cuban-Americans cannot establish businesses on the Island unless they achieve permanent residence in the country through repatriation.

Cuba has been hoping for months that the U.S. will approve measures to help the MSMEs on the Island that, far from materializing, do not cease to provoke controversy.

Cuba has been interested for months in the U.S. approving measures to help the MSMEs on the Island that, far from materializing, do not cease to arouse controversy

Without going any further, on November 8, Senator Marco Rubio questioned the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, about the fact that Cubans who arrive in the U.S. and seek refuge end up living between the two countries.

“You’re supposed to be fleeing political persecution, so you are automatically a candidate to receive money for being a refugee, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid,” said Rubio, who compared the privilege of Cubans who can obtain these benefits after one year to the situation of refugees from other countries who have to wait five years.

“Some return to Cuba for three months at a time, and they have only been here for a year. How, if you are fleeing persecution, can it be that a year later you spend the summers in Cuba? How can it be that you travel between six and eight times a year to Cuba? I have never heard that people who flee persecution return to that place repeatedly. There’s a problem here, isn’t there?” said the Republican senator.

Perhaps Cuba will take immediate measures to regularize the situation of its businessmen with dual nationality. It is less clear that the U.S. will do so with respect to the embargo restrictions. What is a fact is that the owners of these companies continue to operate without problems.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba Holds a Meeting With Emigrants as the Largest Exodus in Decades Continues

Among the main novelties of the event is the emphasis on promoting Cuban migrants to invest in the country. (Cubadebate)

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 18 November 2023 — The Nation and Emigration conference, where the Cuban Government will meet in Havana with several hundred invited emigrants, starts this Saturday while the economic crisis fuels the largest national exodus in decades.

Among the main novelties of the event is its emphasis on promoting Cuban migrants to invest in the country, especially in the incipient private sector that is forming small, newly created companies. The focus is especially on Cuban-Americans.

In an interview with Temas magazine, the general director of Consular Affairs and Cubans Living Abroad in Cuba, Ernesto Soberón, explained that one of the objectives is “to create ways so that Cubans who want and desire can contribute to the economic development of the country”.

In general terms, the conference is understood by the Cuban Government as a mechanism to conduct dialogue with Cubans abroad and as a symbol of the “continuity” of this exchange. continue reading

“It will be an opportunity to update our compatriots, first-hand, about the Cuban reality and their participation in the development of the Homeland,” Soberón wrote on social networks; EFE has requested an interview with him but so far received no answer.

The event, which continues until Sunday, will begin with a speech by Miguel Díaz-Canel. Some 300 Cuban emigrants of different generations and residents of 50 countries will participate in the meeting. The Cuban Government sent invitations to some of them; others requested to attend and were admitted, the organizers explained.

In this meeting the country will open its “arms to its children residing abroad,” but with a nuance. “Those who respect and defend the soil where they were born will always be welcome.”

Díaz-Canel wrote on social networks that for this meeting the country will open its “arms to its children residing abroad,” but with a nuance. “Those who respect and defend the soil where they were born will always be welcome,” he added.

The majority of participants whose identities have been revealed are people linked to solidarity groups with Cuba abroad. The first edition of this conference took place in 1978 and the last one was held 19 years ago. It represents a change in Havana’s treatment of the Cuban community abroad, marked by political differences and exile since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959.

The debates, which will not be public, have been grouped into four thematic panels, among which the one on socioeconomic development and investment stands out, which aims to promote the entry of foreign capital into the country.

The commitment complements other measures taken by the Government of Cuba in the same direction in recent months, such as the pavilion for Cuban emigrants at the Havana International Fair, the largest business event in the country.

The other three thematic panels of the conference are perspectives on the country’s relationship with its emigrants, their communications with the country, and culture as identity, the organization explained.

The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, stressed that the Government’s “will” is to “build a respectful and civilized relationship” with the United States. The Cuban Foreign Minister criticized that Washington “lacks the political will to move in that direction.”

The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, stressed that the “will” of the Government is to “build a respectful and civilized relationship” with the United States

“During 2015, 2016 and 2017 we demonstrated that willingness and it was also confirmed that would be something possible and mutually beneficial,” he indicated. Furthermore, he said that the conference “is a fortunate and unequivocal example of the irreversible strengthening of the ties between Cuba and its nationals abroad.”

Cuba is mired in a serious economic crisis with no signs of recovery in the short or medium term due to the combination of the pandemic, the tightening of US sanctions and decisions on national economic and monetary policy.

The shortage of basic products (food, medicine and fuel), rampant inflation, partial dollarization of the economy and frequent blackouts have led many to consider leaving the country in the face of uncertainty and lack of prospects.

So far this year, more than 57,000 Cubans have received parole to legally enter the United States, out of the hundreds of thousands who have requested it in the 11 months that this immigration mechanism has been in force.

In addition, some 110,000 Cubans were intercepted entering the United States irregularly between January and September of this year, according to official statistics.

In 2022, more than 313,000 Cubans arrived by land in the US and several thousand arrived by sea (and were mostly returned). An additional tens of thousands of Cubans went primarily to Spain, Mexico and other Latin American countries.

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US Threatens to Punish Charter Companies That Take Migrants From Cuba to Managua

In recent weeks, different information has emerged about the lucrative business that Nicaragua is doing not only with Cubans, but also with Haitians. (Facebook)

14ymedio, Madrid, November 17, 2023 — The wave of Cuban migrants from Nicaragua could have its days numbered if the United States finally decides to take measures against airlines that operate charter flights between Havana and Managua. This Thursday, Eric Jacobstein, deputy undersecretary of the US Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, told The Voice of America that Washington is “analyzing consequences” against these companies and he is already the second official to express himself in these terms in recent days.

“We are absolutely aware of these reports of an increase in charter flights arriving in Nicaragua from several countries and believe that no one should profit from the desperation of vulnerable migrants,” said Jacobstein, who was in Havana for the fourth round of immigration talks between the Island and the United States.

The official, the State Department oficial in charge of these issues in Central America and the Caribbean, told the media that there is genuine concern for the well-being of migrants who are exposed to “exploitation, abuse and trafficking by organized criminal networks.” continue reading

“What we are seeing are charter flights that go to Nicaragua full and return empty to Cuba. So this is not typical of tourism.”

“What we are seeing are charter flights that go to Nicaragua full and return empty to Cuba. So this is not typical of tourism, but of irregular migration,” he declared. Although the phenomenon has been going on for two years, since the Government of Daniel Ortega eliminated the visa requirement for Cubans in November 2021, Jacobstein now affirms that they are devoting a lot of time to “analyzing the precise tools that will be used” and he assured that there will be consequences, while expressly avoiding the word ‘sanctions’.

Just two weeks ago, the Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols, offered very similar statements that cast doubt on whether the United States would finally decide to intervene in the exodus that Managua has facilitated to pressure the Biden Administration.

“We are exploring the full range of possible consequences for those who facilitate this form of irregular migration. We continue to urge the use of safe and legal pathways,” said Nichols at that time, and he is now joined by his colleague.

Between 2021 and 2023, more than 425,000 Cubans arrived at the southern border of Mexico, on their way to the United States. The route through Nicaragua has facilitated the avoidance of an even worse path, the one that involved crossing the Darién jungle, between Colombia and Panama, which many took in the previous migration crisis of 2015.

However, migrants have not stopped exposing themselves to other risks that remain in this section, smaller but equally dangerous, through Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, where they hand over their fate to coyotes and corrupt officials, in addition to exposing themselves to traffic accidents, scams and frauds.

Currently the only airlines that fly regularly to Nicaragua from Cuba are Aruba Airlines and Conviasa

Currently the only airlines that fly regularly to Nicaragua from Cuba are Aruba Airlines and Conviasa, from Venezuela with a stopover in Havana, but other companies privately operate the routes that Washington now wants to put a stop to.

In recent weeks, various information has emerged about the lucrative business that Nicaragua is doing not only with Cubans, but also with Haitians, who use Managua as a starting point for their trip. Illegal fee charges and an attempt by the government to monopolize the transportation business by prohibiting taxi drivers from transporting migrants are among the complaints made.

Two weeks ago, Haiti banned charter flights to Nicaragua, but it is not foreseeable that the Cuban Government will decide to act in the same direction, so the United States could opt for measures that prevent these companies from entering its airspace or intervening in their accounts in US banks.

Between August and October, Managua’s Augusto C. Sandino International Airport received 268 flights from Port-au-Prince, despite the fact that there is no officially open route between both countries. In August, 30 flights were registered between Port-au-Prince and Managua, with 100 in September and 138 in October, according to Nicaraguan political scientist and consultant Manuel Orozco, director of the Migration, Remittances and Development program of the Inter-American Dialogue.

From those 268 flights, 31,475 passengers disembarked and in that same period 54,671 Haitians passed through the border of Mexico and the United States, which means that 57.8% began their route in Managua, according to the consultant. Ortega “is offering the country as a bridge between Haiti and the United States, which is convenient, because it is less risky, although more expensive to go directly to Managua,” he noted.

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The Cuban Foreign Minister Made the Wrong Speech at the Session on Human Rights in Geneva

Bruno Rodríguez in Geneva during the presentation of the Universal Periodic Review report. (A)

14ymedio, Madrid, 15 November 2023 — A discussion of the United States took up half the time taken by the Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, in his presentation of Cuba’s report for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council this Wednesday in Geneva. The mechanism is designed for the United Nations to evaluate the situation of each country in this matter and issue recommendations for its possible improvement, but this morning’s session seemed more intended to analyze Washington.

“The economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba constitutes a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of Cubans,” Rodríguez repeated. His speech did not move a millimeter of words that both at the UN and on the Island already sound like a mantra.

Rodríguez recalled the things that have happened since the previous UPR to which the Island was subjected, in 2018, such as the “more than 240 additional unilateral coercive measures and the fraudulent inclusion of Cuba in the spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism,” on one side. Also in that period there was a pandemic, Covid-19, in which “[Cuba] was prevented from acquiring lung ventilators from subsidiaries of American companies,” said the chancellor, who made reference to other materials, including oxygen, even though the embargo specifically allows drugs and medical devices to be acquired by Cuba. continue reading

The Minister of Foreign Affairs went on a rampage and also blamed the embargo for all of the country’s problems without exception, namely: exorbitant prices, currency devaluation and salaries

From April 2018 to February 2023, the Foreign Minister stated for the occasion, “the blockade has caused damages and losses to Cuba estimated, conservatively, on the order of 24.7 billion dollars.” Rodríguez, who also offered his estimate for the 60 years the measure has been in effect: damages and losses of 159 billion dollars. All of this is the cause of “suffering, deprivation and anxiety for Cuban families, and is the fundamental cause of the scarce supply of medicines and food, even for the regulated basic basket, which is insufficient, but everyone receives it highly subsidized.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs got going and also blamed the embargo for all of the country’s problems without exception, namely: the exorbitant prices, the devaluation of the currency and salaries, “the crippling power outages,” the limitations in primary transportation services and the “negative effects also on health and education.”

Furthermore, Cuba is, he maintained, a “victim” of media campaigns to “project an absolutely false image about human rights and to subvert the nation’s constitutional order. This modus operandi was implemented, with particular intensity, in 2021, when an attempt was made to force a destabilizing situation.”

That was the moment everyone was waiting for. Reports from international organizations of different sensitivities have warned in recent weeks of the alarming deterioration experienced in human rights in Cuba, with the mass protests of 11 July 2021 [11J] as a turning point. That day of anti-government protests led to thousands of arrests and hundreds of prisoners sentenced to up to 30 years in prison amid dubious trials. But the chancellor haggled and left without saying a single word about the repression, not even to argue a defense for the occasion.

The foreign minister added a dose of humility and stated that “despite Cuba’s progress since the previous Review” there are “dissatisfactions

On the contrary, the report presented by Cuba speaks of strict compliance with the recommendations made in 2018 (those that were accepted, of course). The total was 226, of which 215 were completed and 11 are on the way. The achievements cited by the minister include the new Constitution of 2019, which enshrines the “irrevocable” nature of the socialist system and the Communist Party as unique and legal.

## From there, he spoke of 129 new legal norms, the new Family Code and a whole variety of programs that exist on paper but are still absent from the daily life of Cubans, among them one against racism, another for protection to people with physical or intellectual disabilities and one more against gender violence, precisely in a year in which 75 femicides have been recorded to date for a country of about 11 million people.

Rodríguez also mentioned the recent designation of Cuba to a seat on the UN Human Rights Council and the cooperation that the Island maintains with the Office of the High Commissioner.

Approaching the end, the chancellor added a dose of humility and stated that “despite Cuba’s progress since the previous Review” there are “dissatisfactions,” but the effort to “improve, promote full dignity and all justice” prevails. To achieve this, he explained, the Island will continue to cooperate “in a sovereign manner” with the United Nations, which “will always be able to count on Cuba to defend peace and multilateralism and promote the realization of all human rights for all.”

Two others are added to the report presented by Rodríguez, one from experts on the subject from the United Nations and another from non-governmental organizations, which will be evaluated by a troika of rapporteurs composed, in the case of Cuba, of Argentina, Benin and Nepal. On Friday afternoon, the 47 members of the Council will issue their recommendations to Cuba and the island’s representatives may deign to talk about the issue that is on the table at the Geneva meeting.

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Italian Businessman Linked to Castroism Will Open a Hard Currency Store in the Old Ten Cents Store in Galiano

The foreign part of the new Havana shopping center already has thirty stores in Cuba, Burbujas and Agua y Bón. (5Septiembre)

14ymedio, Madrid, November 17, 2023 — Food, footwear, appliances, hygiene products and other household items: an entire catalog of products in a Havana shopping center that requires payment in hard currency. Unlike what happened a few days ago with the announcement of the upcoming arrival of RusMarket in the Cuban capital, it has become clear that purchases will be made only in freely convertible currency (MLC) at Variedades Galiano Casalinda, which will open its doors to the public at the beginning of 2024.

The premises, which will have two floors according to the project, will be located in the heart of the capital, in the building that housed the very popular Ten Cents store, of the American Woolworth chain before the Revolution. This is an international economic association contract between Tiendas Caribe, a part of the Cuban military consortium Gaesa, and the Italian company Italsav, present on the Island since the 90s. The document was signed this Thursday under the watchful eye of gigantic photographs of Fidel and Raul Castro. continue reading

“We are sealing an agreement after more than a year of negotiations with the certainty that it will be a novel project”

Berto Savina Tito, president of Italsav , whose relationship with Castroism has been known for decades, has thanked his Cuban partners for the good “results in the country.” “We are sealing an agreement after more than a year of negotiations with the certainty that it will be a novel project,” he told Cubadebate.

On the Cuban side, Ana María Ortega, general director of Tiendas Caribe, has also expressed her satisfaction with Italsav over the years. “Since our beginnings we have had this supplier and we have a direct relationship with it. Our ties have always been respectful. Our chain emerged in a complex period, and now we are fighting another battle in the economy,” she declared.

Savina arrived in Cuba in the 90s to found the Todo por 1 stores, which sold their products for one CUC (Cuban Convertible Peso, equivalent to one dollar). The business later evolved to give way to the Burbujas and Agua y Bón establishments, with more than 30 stores in Cuba.

In March, when the idea of the new store began to circulate, Cubanet published an extensive report on the Italian businessman in which a source from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment stated that the landing of the Savina stores bothered some of the Gaesa military emporium, called to manage them.

Signing of the contract between Italsav and Tiendas del Caribe. (Cubadebate)

“Some refused, saying that it was something very capitalist. But in the midst of the shortages they couldn’t refuse, especially when they realized that Berto (Savina) could be useful in other things. That’s why the little company grew. Italsav would have been nothing if the Cuban government would have rejected it. You can say that it is a Cuban company that operates in Italy, not an Italian company that operates in Cuba, that is the truth,” he stated.

In the same report, a source close to the Castros stated that the Italian businessman arrived in the country with some compatriots who were friends of one of Fidel Castro’s sons, Tony. Although he maintains he did not know Tony Castro personally, those ties helped him settle in Cuba.

With an eye toward earning foreign currency, Variedades Galiano Casalinda will begin, before the establishment’s doors open, with an online store “for purchases generated from abroad.”

The first reactions from readers of the official press have shown more division than usual for this type of establishment. Although many have regretted that the availability of merchandize continues to expand for those who have foreign currency, while those who only have national currency remain the same, many still trust that the existence of this type of business is good for attracting a currency that will end up having an impact on the population.

In the midst of the dispute, a reader pointed out one of the great problems of the regime, recognized by itself and others. “What a great job. Six months to approve the opening of a business. What bureaucracy. That’s not how a country develops,” he snapped.

What a great job. Six months to approve the opening of a business. What bureaucracy. “This is not how a country develops,” said a commenter. In any case, the opening of stores with foreign capital and in MLC is part of the new policy of the Cuban Government to raise foreign currency by any means necessary and represents a break with the previous prohibition that prevented foreign investment in wholesale and retail trade.

In addition to Italsav and RusMarket, the Government authorized, in December 2022, the creation of the joint company Gran Ferretero SA, born from an agreement between the Sociedad Mercantil Albus SA, owned by the Cuban State, and the Spanish company Gurea Industrial & Automotive Equipment. SL, to market hardware items and construction materials.

This company has a large premises on Fábrica Street, in Old Havana, but the opening of the business, originally scheduled for the first quarter of 2023, has been delayed without any explanation, which has given rise to suspicions about the viability or even the existence of the Spanish company.

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Cuba Respects Neither Human Rights nor ‘Human Lefts’

In countries such as Cuba, power is cynically ambidextrous. All the dissidents who have been persecuted, imprisoned or exiled know this, even if they espouse social democratic ideas. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Yunior Garcia Aguilera, Madrid, 15 November 2023 — The international left sometimes seems less like an ideology and more like a dogma. Many of its organizations and activists are motivated by compacts, debts and interests, not by principles or objectives. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, for example, are capable of embracing today’s dictators while turning their backs on other mothers now fighting for justice for their unjustly imprisoned children.

The sect had its share of altars, relics and prayers but its aspirations were emptied of their content. Poets and singers lent it their talents with blind fanaticism, paving the road to hell with good intentions.

The fires of that hell burn in countries like Cuba, where no one believes in songs about equality and social justice anymore because reality hits you in the face like a henchman’s boot. We have stopped speaking in the future tense. Our everyday speech now compels us to disguise the future as some uncertain present. No one says, “I will come tomorrow.” Instead, we say, “I come tomorrow.” In Cuba we stopped dreaming a long time ago. Now we escape en masse, heading towards the American dream or the Spanish siesta. continue reading

The western world’s oldest dictatorship has acquired extensive experience in influence trading and diplomatic marketing

It is paradoxical and disingenuous in the extreme that a regime as abusive as Cuba’s retains a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. One might ask: What is the purpose of an institution whose judges are notorious criminals? What’s the point of putting a jurist’s robe on a known human rights violator?

It’s obvious the system is not working. It has a factory defect. The western world’s oldest dictatorship has acquired extensive experience in influence peddling and diplomatic marketing. They know exactly what screws to tighten to get favorable votes in international institutions. And once the truth becomes plainly evident, they have a loyal left all too willing to betray its ideals and play along with the bloc.

Nothing remains of the old 20th century utopia. Every version of the great revolutionary scam became more dystopian, both in Venezuela and in Nicaragua. Ultimately, it was never about the people, much less the workers. It was about power, plain and simple. The Orwellian prophecy came to fruition in spades, filling the farm with ever more two-legged pigs.

Like every religion, the Latin American left had its own sacred texts. Eduardo Galeano’s The Open Veins of Latin America became the bible of the continent’s progressives. The Uruguayan writer later admitted he had a shaky grasp of economics and politics when he wrote the book. “I wouldn’t be able to read it today,” he admitted in Brasilia in 2014. “That sort of traditional leftist prose can be very heavy-handed.”

It is, in fact, a well-written albeit populist book. It simplified complex issues using seductive language. It appealed more to emotion than to reason. It absolved us of all blame, foisting all our problems and their solutions onto the shoulders of others. Despite this, Galeano continues to be quoted with the same fervor that Jesuits quote St. Ignatius Loyola.

Another poet of the pantheon is Mario Benedetti. In his poem “Everything Is Clear Now” he posed a challenge, calling for a broad internernational compaign for “human lefts.” The writing is unquestionably brilliant. But in countries such as Cuba, where power is cynically ambidextrous, such work is ultimately sterile.

All the dissidents who been persecuted, incarcerated or exiled know this. One young man, Romero Negrín, knew it in his ribs. He once dared to hold up a poster that read, “Socialism yes, repression no.” They beat him to death. Alina Barbara Lopez Hernandez, an intellectual accused of resistance and disobedience, knows it. Everyone who has tried unsuccessfully to form an independent trade union knows it. The teachers who do not get paid on time, whose monthly paychecks are only enough to buy a measly carton of eggs, know it. Doctors who lack what they need to save lives while hotels get everything they want know it.

I would like to pose my own challenge to Cuba’s state-run press: I dare you to publish the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in your newspapers’ centerspreads, without taglines or manipulative commentary. Would their owners permit it? Cuba is the country where the police could once arrest you for covertly distributing this document. Cuba is where the regime’s henchmen shouted “Down with human rights!” during pro-government demonstrations. In Cuba not even the poetic though impotent human lefts are respected.

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Cuban Political Prisoner Felix Navarro Is Transferred to a Hospital in Matanzas

The opponent Félix Navarro is “in a delicate state of health, is 70 years old and has several chronic diseases.” (Muad)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2023 — The political prisoner Félix Navarro was transferred this week from the Agüica prison to the Faustino Pérez hospital in Matanzas. The health of the opposition leader, coordinator of the Pedro Luis Boitel Party for Democracy, had deteriorated in recent weeks, according to family reports.

Navarro’s wife, Sonia Álvarez, showed up this Friday morning at the police station of the municipality of Perico and “asked to speak to a State Security officer,” activist Annia Zamora told 14ymedio. “They told her that he was in the hospital for a medical check-up, but we don’t believe that version. He is in a delicate state of health, is 70 years old and has several chronic diseases.”

Zamora, mother of the political prisoner Sissi Abascal, recommended that people “be attentive and denounce the situation” of the opposition leader. Navarro’s daughter, the Lady of White Sayli Navarro, is being held in La Bellotex prison, in Matanzas, for participating in the popular protests of 11 July 2021 (11J).

Félix Navarro, who was sentenced for the crimes of “assault” and “public disorder” to 9 years in prison just for going out to demonstrate on 11J, has experienced a deterioration of his health, worsened by diabetes and the lung injury he suffers, and added to the several hunger strikes he has carried out in prison to demand his release. continue reading

In July and September of this year, the opponent, former prisoner of the 2003 Black Spring, suffered several fainting spells in the Agüica prison

In July and September of this year, the opponent, former prisoner of the 2003 Black Spring, suffered several fainting spells in the Agüica prison. He recently needed his family to take antibiotics to the prison to treat a skin infection, and he still has consequences from COVID-19, which he suffered two years ago.

In July 2021, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures in favor of Navarro, noting that he was in a “grave situation and at urgent risk of irreparable damage to his rights in Cuba.”

Relatives and lawyers then told the IACHR about the difficulties they have faced in maintaining contact and visits as well as obtaining information about his detention and health conditions.

After analyzing the allegations of fact and law, the IACHR considered that the information presented showed that Navarro was in a situation of gravity and urgency, and it asked the Government of Cuba to “adopt the necessary measures to protect the right to life” of the opponent, a complaint that has not yet been answered.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Players ‘Were Not Invited’to the Caribbean Series, Admits the Regime

Cuba was present at the 2022 Caribbean Series, held in Venezuela, when the number of invited teams at the time was eight. (Ricardo López Hevia/Granma)

14ymedio, Havana, November 16, 2023 — The Cuban baseball team was left out of the Caribbean Series, which will be held in Miami next February, a key event for regaining the prestige of the national team after a year marked by desertions and mediocre performance. The players of the Island “were not invited,” said the president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, Juan Reinaldo Pérez, during a press conference at the Latin American stadium.

Juventud Rebelde journalist Guillermo Rodríguez asked the manager about the next steps for the Cuban team in the international arena and received confirmation that the Island will not be part of the competition.

The news was confirmed in the X account of the Federation itself, which added that it continued to summon the “players (Cubans) inserted in other leagues,” as already happened in the World Classic, to alleviate the shortage of players of the so-called Team Asere. The team “maintains its aspirations to participate in 2025,” the agency noted. continue reading

This April, the ESPN network pointed out that the Caribbean Series had limited the participation to six teams, preferring to invite Nicaragua and Curaçao rather than Cuba. Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, which are part of the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation, will also play and, by membership rights, are obliged to participate in the tournament.

The team “maintains its aspirations to participate in 2025”

As for the Elite League of Cuban Baseball, which the Island is currently celebrating, Pérez said that the team that wins will have the right to participate in an important Antillean Cup to be held in Puerto Rico, to which Cuba “was invited,” along with the Dominican Republic, although they still have to negotiate with the organizers the details of the trip.

Cuba was present at the 2022 Caribbean Series, held in Venezuela, when the number of invited teams at the time was eight. Although it did not obtain any notable results, the Cuban national team expected to attend the event this year, a disappointment that Pérez did not hide during his press conference.

Several experts have attributed the rejection of the Cuban national team by the organizers of the Series to the controversy over the presentation of Team Asere in Miami, during the last World Classic. The Cuban regime launched a campaign to politicize the meeting, to which the Cuban emigrants in Florida responded with protests against the presence of the Cuban national team.

In addition, Cuba’s performance during the last Caribbean Series was well below the level of the event. The Agricultores – winner of the Elite League of 2022 and entitled to play in the Series – made up of players from Las Tunas and Granma, suffered six defeats and won only once.

The Cuban Federation, specialists have also pointed out, is taking steps towards the reissue of a new Team Asere, a desperate strategy that seeks to counterbalance the escapes of Cuban athletes and improve the Island’s performance internationally. The Premier 12 international tournament, whose venue is not yet known, is the goal of the Cuban directors and the reason why they are urgently summoning Cuban players who already play as professionals ’on the other shore’.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Departures, Blackouts and Rain Are a Curse for the Elite Baseball League in Cuba

The fourth game between the Sancti Spíritus and Matanzas teams was suspended due to a blackout in the stadium. (Maikel Martín)

14ymedio, Havana, 17 November 2023 — A blackout due to an electrical failure in two lighting towers of the José Antonio Huelga stadium forced the fourth game between Sancti Spíritus and Matanzas, as a part of the subseries of the II Elite League, to be suspended this Thursday. The start of the match had been delayed by the rain, which has affected the Island in recent days.

The game was suspended when the epirituanos had the advantage of a run. “The agreement was that they would pitch: the right-handed Albert Valladares for the Gallos and the left-hander Denis Quesada for the Crocodilos,” journalist Maikel Martín Gallego told the official newspaper Escambray. The match will resume when the Yayabo team visits the Victoria stadium in Girón, Matanzas, the Athens of Cuba, he says.

The rain also forced the reprogramming of last Tuesday’s game between the Leones de Industrialies and the Avispas of Santiago de Cuba, which will take place at the Guillermón Moncada stadium, journalist Boris Luis Cabrera Acosta reported on his social networks.

In recent days, the Santiago capital suffered heavy rainfall that affected the east of the Island and left severe damage in the neighboring province of Holguín. continue reading

Cuban baseball is experiencing a nightmare to which the curse of blackouts has also been added, although this was predictable. Despite the constant power outages suffered on the Island, national commissioner Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo announced at the beginning of this month that games would begin from 6:30 in the evening, with the exception of the 26 de Julio stadium in Artemisa, where the matches are scheduled at 1:30 pm.

The rain also forced the reprogramming of last Tuesday’s game between the Leones de Industriales and the Avispas de Santiago

Cuban baseball hasn’t managed to exorcise the evils left by the escape of athletes, which is reflected in the local tournament. The second edition of the Elite League was unattractive for 24 players who declined to participate for different reasons before its start on November 7, while another 20 athletes were dropped.

The incentive that the winner of the tournament will represent Cuba in the Antillean Cup of Puerto Rico is no longer enough. The posture of the athletes had repercussions. Pérez Pardo, from the Baseball Federation of Cuba and the director of the Elite League, Carlos Martín, warned that with respect to “those athletes who do not want to play in the League or another national tournament, their attitude will be taken into consideration when we form a national team.”

Athletes prefer to leave the Island in the search to sign with a major league club in the United States. This was the case of Cuban picher Marlon Vega, who a few weeks ago traveled to Mexico and this week signed a contract with the Mayos de Navojoa in the Pacific League.

Leodan Reyes, who asked for his leave from baseball last year, reached an agreement on Sunday with the Washington Nationals. According to journalist Francys Romero, the native of Pinar del Río will receive a bonus of $60,000 when he signs his contract on January 15.

Without figures of brilliance and luster, the Cuban fans have shown their apathy by being absent from the stands in the II Elite League. “After each inning, the stadiums seem to sigh with a notorious absence, giving the final touches to an unusual landscape that invites reflection,” Play-Off Magazine published. “The decision not to go to the stadium is an echo of dissatisfaction, a mute cry that reverberates through the corridors, reminding us that baseball is more than a game: it is a symbolic pact between the stands and the sacred ground.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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