Violation of Human Rights: Jorge Luis ‘Tangallo’ Rodríguez Valdés Is In a Punishment Cell / Cubalex

Facade of Kilo 8 prison, in Pinar del Río, Cuba

Cubalex, 13 September 2024 — Political prisoner Jorge Luis Rodríguez Valdés, known as “Tangallo”, was again transferred to a punishment cell in Kilo 8 prison, in Pinar del Río, for demanding a visit that the authorities arbitrarily denied him.

Tangallo has no close relatives and State Security forbade activist Eduardo Díaz Fleitas to visit him in prison. Although they arranged for someone else to deliver basic necessities to him, the authorities also prevented this.

According to information sent to Cubalex, Tangallo demanded his right to a visit in front of the head of the provincial prisons body, and for this reason he was sent to the punishment cell.

He recently spent 27 days in solitary confinement for an alleged suspicion of tuberculosis, and earlier he spent 17 days in solitary confinement, evidencing a systematic pattern of reprisals through solitary confinement. continue reading

The frequent use of prolonged solitary confinement fails to comply with international standards, such as the Mandela Rules, which prohibit this practice. The lack of independent review increases the risk of abuses and rights violations.

In addition, prolonged solitary confinement has a devastating impact on the physical and mental health of prisoners, leading to severe psychological disorders such as extreme anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. These practices are considered a form of torture.

The case of Tangallo is yet another example of the inhumane conditions to which prisoners are subjected in Cuba, and of the particularly severe reprisals faced by political prisoners.

Translated by GH

Can the Police in Cuba Ask for Identification Without Any Reason? / Cubalex

Cubalex, 10 September 2024 — A user commented on Facebook that, while visiting Havana as a tourist, she was stopped by a traffic police officer on the public road at around midnight. When asked for identification, she explained that she did not have her passport at the time, but that she could show her National ID. When she took out her mobile phone, the policeman allowed her to continue without asking any further questions.

Following this experience, the user wonders whether it is common practice in Cuba for the authorities to request identification for no apparent reason.

The Cubalex legal team responds:

In Cuba, the authorities can detain a person and ask for identification without a reason. This is a frequent practice, especially in central and tourist areas, and often targets women under the pretext of combating sex work. This occurs due to a lack of adequate oversight and the absence of constitutional guarantees protecting citizens from unwarranted harassment. continue reading

In this case, it is likely that the user was allowed to continue without inconvenience because she was a foreigner. However, if she had been a Cuban citizen, it is very likely that she would have been treated differently, with stricter and more prolonged restriction.

This practice, in addition to being common, has serious implications for human rights and individual freedoms, as it can invade privacy, restrict freedom of movement and create a climate of constant surveillance. It also encourages discrimination and arbitrary treatment, undermining fundamental principles such as the presumption of innocence.

If you need more information on this issue or legal advice, do not hesitate to contact the Cubalex legal team at info@cubalex.org or request safe legal advice through our Telegram channel: +1 901-205-9786.

We provide you with free and completely confidential legal advice.

Translated by GH

The Basic Ration Basket is Reduced and Arrives Late in Cienfuegos Stores

 The provincial government claims there is enough food to go around but the ration stores beg to differ

A Cienfuegos bodega selling rationed products /14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 18 September 2024 – The flies circulating around the counter of the Calle Gloria bodega — the ration store — are witnesses to the fact that the regulated family ration basket has not yet arrived. September is nearly over and although the province’s interior commerce authorities give assurances that there are enough stocks to ensure distribution, in the actual ration shops themselves it’s the opposite that is obviously the case.

Alfredo, retired, 68, asks if anything has arrived yet, knowing full well in advance what the shop’s answer will be. “I don’t know what these people are thinking. It’s not enough for them that they remove some of the products from the baskets, but then they only distribute them when and if they can be bothered. Obviously, none of those bosses need a ration book to survive”, he says. But his experience is very different because he only gets 1,800 pesos in his pension each month.

There’s room in the shop to store what has been announced – for each person 7 pounds of rice, 2 pounds of sugar, 10 ounces of peas, 4 boxes of cigars and tobacco – none of which anyone believes can be maintained in the months to come. “Especially for those of us at the bottom who have to put up with hunger. When I finally actually see the two tins of sardines that they promised us over-65’s, then I’ll believe it”, Alfredo adds.

“The basic basket hardly lasts a week, so what happens then?” 

The pensioner refers to the new free food batch which the government has promised for the vulnerable – the elderly, pregnant women, under-weight people – who, apart from receiving sardines will get rice and peas. “They’re laughing in our faces, because actually most of the population are ’vulnerable’. The basic ration hardly lasts you a week, so what happens then?”, he says. In his opinion, these freebies only go to turn the distributors, warehouses, and others charged with delivery, automatically into retailers, making money on the back of everyone’s current misery. continue reading

The empty shelves are confirmation that any “glory” only exists in the actual name of the street – Calle Gloria – in which the shop sits, because the place itself is practically in ruins. “The shelving is full of termites and the roof leaks whenever it rains, but no one in power seems to care anything about the decline that’s happening everywhere”, says Xiomara, who hears that her son’s yoghurt will arrive after 2pm.

“The other problem is that there’s no guarantee about the quality or the stability of the foodstuffs. We’re still waiting for the July, August and September salt supplies. They tell us that they won’t remove that like they did with the cooking oil, eggs and coffee. The administration of this nation has no respect for its people, but tells us we live in a socialist country. And the worst thing is that as they keep crushing us with shortages of every possible kind we keep on playing their game of keeping our mouths shut”, the Cienfuegera adds.

On the store’s counter, sits a filthy box with a QR code, the only evidence of banking activity in the place. “They can’t provide a petty cash service, because, as there are no products to sell, they don’t actually have any cash. And until recently, there were difficulties with the automated system so they didn’t accept payment by bank transfer either”, says Xiomara.

“It won’t be long before the ration books disappear. We shan’t miss them too much because they’re already impractical”, says Alfredo, expressing a fear that is becoming more and more common in Cuba.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Two Cuban Doctors Have Been Waiting a Year for the Bank To Give Them the Dollars They Earned in Angola

“Without the possibility of buying a house,” the doctors believe that the State is not repaying them for their sacrifice

Cuban health workers with officials from the Island and Angola at an event in Luanda / Cubaminrex

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 19 September 2024 — As if it were not enough to permanently retain more than 70% of the salaries of doctors on international “missions,” Cuban banks have denied two doctors who worked in Angola the extraction of the hard currency coming to them. The information was published this week by the official press itself, to which the couple appealed in a last attempt to obtain what is theirs.

“Acknowledgement of receipt,” a section of the newspaper Juventud Rebelde dedicated to publishing the population’s complaints, was the recipient of the claim of the married couple Eliannys Saborit Oliva and Alfredo Miguel Ramos, an anesthesiologist and an orthopedist, who live in the municipality of Bayamo, in Granma province.

After their return from Angola in 2023, where they spent three years as part of one of the health contingents that Cuba exports to many countries, the doctors earned an undisclosed amount of foreign currency for the State that was to be paid to them “after a reasonable time.” However, the Banco Popular de Ahorro de Bayamo has not paid the doctors since October 2023, claiming low availability of foreign currency. continue reading

The Banco Popular de Ahorro de Bayamo has not paid the doctors since October 2023, claiming low availability of foreign currency

Saborit Oliva and Miguel Ramos, who say they need the money to become independent, have run out of options, because as residents of Granma they can collect foreign currency only in that province. Meanwhile, their colleagues from other territories received their salaries long ago.

“Nor do they plan strategies for sending monetary aid, after almost a year of waiting to extract the cash in hard currency that is ours for having made money for the country, for representing our nation with dignity and for surgically saving lives, in adverse conditions of tuberculosis, hepatitis, HIV, malaria and Covid-19, with the sacrifice of abandoning our daughter and the rest of the family,” says the couple, who do not see their efforts being repaid.

“We have made three trips to Havana, with letters from the Council of Ministers, and the matter was transferred to the Central Bank of Cuba, which has the same answer: there is no availability,” say the doctors. They explain that they still “don’t have the money, after several complaints processed at the central banking level, without a date for delivery and without the possibility of buying a house.”

“The low availability is real, but we can’t understand, after almost one year, why they haven’t been able to resolve our demand,” the couple concludes, in their underlying criticism of the Cuban banking system.

Health workers are obliged to deposit the hard currency obtained during their missions abroad in Cuban banks, a policy implemented to try to avoid the desertion abroad of these professionals

Health workers are obliged to deposit the hard currency obtained during their missions abroad in Cuban banks, a policy implemented to try to avoid the desertion of these professionals. If they leave the mission, the health workers lose their wages, which pass to the State coffers.

This aspect of medical missions, as well as the withholding by the State of between 70% and 95% of the amounts paid by other countries for each Cuban health worker, has been pointed out by several organizations as a form of modern slavery.

Some of the health workers have even broken their silence and complained that the part of the money that Cuba leaves them to live on while they are on a mission is barely enough for basic needs. In 2023, one of the doctors of the more than 600 sent to Mexico that year told the newspaper Reforma that instead of a salary, he and his colleagues received a “stipend.” His salary, he added, minus the percentage taken by the regime, was in Cuba.

For its part, despite having a devastated health system – where there is a lack of supplies and medicines for the professionals themselves – Cuba insists that part of the money that other countries pay for Cuban doctors is reinvested in the Public Health sector of the Island.

“Doing away with this income means preventing Cuba from buying or manufacturing medicines, repairing hospitals, importing medical technology or, simply, the economic improvement of cooperating personnel and their families,” claimed Cubainformacción, a pro-Castro portal based in Spain, last February. The truth is that, as the Government of Cuba itself reports, more than 33% of the State budget goes to investments in tourism. This is reflected in the public accounts of 2023, where it is stated that the Health sector receives less than 2% of the State budget.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cowardice of UNEAC, Cuba’s Writers and Artists Union

The history of the institution is a soap opera full of lynchings, expulsions, censorship and self-incriminations

Luis Morlote, former president of UNEAC, receiving congratulations from Esteban Lazo for his promotion to the Central Committee / Granma

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 19 September 2024 — Last Sunday, Cuba’s official newspaper Granma published a pamphlet entitled “The Brave and the Cowardly.” It was obvious that the article referred to the reaction caused by the expulsion of Dr. Alina Bárbara López Hernández from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), since several members resigned from the organization and expressed their disagreement on social networks. But the article never dared to mention her by name. It preferred to gloat, in super-worn nautical metaphors and the phraseology of José Martí taken out of context, as Yusuam Palacios, director of the Fragua Martiana Museum, usually does in his pseudo-poetic parliamentary speeches.

However, despite the fact that the text was loaded with all that revolutionary syrup frequently used by the deputy of Sagua de Tánamo, no one dared to sign it. It appeared under the authorship of “Cultural Writing,” a waste of courage. From the language used, everything indicates that it was written by a single person, a bad poet or some cadre who aspires to be the reincarnation of the Naborí Indian,* although only his “Elegy of the White Shoes” was read.

I have spoken to some UNEAC members who remain in Cuba, and they have confirmed to me that the author did not dare consult them before publishing this mock declaration. So it was something fabricated in an office from an order, or an initiative of some enthusiastic official. In summary, the article that calls itself “brave” is not able to mention the name of the person who inspires it, does not dare to affix the signature of anyone in particular and does not have the guts to consult about its content with members of the organization that is attributed to its authorship. continue reading

In the comments, a reader states that she is totally lost as to the content of the pamphlet

In the comments, a reader states that she is totally lost as to the content of the pamphlet. Mirella admits: “I am interested in having more information about what is happening at this time that brought about this statement as a consequence. I have some idea, but not enough to be able to enlighten others.” Another reader, Lázaro Numa Águila, confesses: “The editorial makes me feel that we continue to make use of speech that is often unintelligible for some; what is the reason for this reaffirmation?”

For several years I was a member of UNEAC, until I resigned, after the infamous statement that the organization published after 11J.** A few weeks before the incident, the late Corina Mestre had called me to a meeting to suggest that I voluntarily resign. I remember he said something like this: “Oh, Yunior, my son, haven’t you read the statutes?” And he was right. Article 2 clearly stated that UNEAC recognizes the Communist Party of Cuba as the superior leading force of society and the State. In other words, in no case is it a non-governmental organization that is part of civil society. Not at all. It is an institution, like all, subordinated to the single party. It is an extension of State Security, with the sole purpose of monitoring and controlling the guild of artists and intellectuals.

Believing that I was someone smart, I thought I could do something useful from within, that continuing to be part of their ranks served to raise my voice in the assemblies, denounce abuses and promote the democratic changes to which I aspired. Being totally honest, I also believed that continuing to be a member was a kind of protective shield, for the minions to think twice before siccing their dogs on me. But I was wrong. I wasn’t someone smart; I was naive and cynical. The history of UNEAC is a soap opera full of lynchings, expulsions, censorship and self-incriminations. UNEAC is not a guild fraternity, it is a minion institution. It’s not a protective shield, it’s a scaffold. From Heberto Padilla to Alina Bárbara there is a long list of convicts.

From Heberto Padilla to Alina Bárbara there is a long list of convicts

Some years ago, in Holguín, during one of those useless provincial assemblies, the troubadour Fernando Cabrejas asked: What is UNEAC for? Others, who also asked for the floor, argued that it was a cultural old folks’ home, which served to be shipwrecked on the Internet, to speed up a journey to capitalism, to drink cheap coffee and eat croquettes without having to line up or to have a bathroom to go to when walking through the city center.

UNEAC’s X Congress was scheduled for June of this year, but culture has never been a priority when it comes to authorizing budgets, nor was the oven used for pastries. In January, Luis Morlote was “promoted” and went from being president of the organization to being a second of Rogelio Polanco in the Auxiliary Structure of the Central Committee for Ideological Affairs: what a rise! Miguel Barnet praised his record as a leader; Polanco justified the decision made, not as a weakness, but as an ability of UNEAC to forge cadres, and Lazo gave a painting – according to the grotesque tradition – to the promoted cadre.

The conclave has been postponed to November. That’s why State Security is on the run threatening and cutting off heads. That is also why the entire propaganda apparatus of the regime publishes daily tomes about UNEAC, Although the note of pessimism is obvious. La Jiribilla, a weekly magazine of Cuban culture, has been repeating a litany of elegies for a week, hysterically shouting that UNEAC unites, adds, multiplies and any other mathematical operation they can think of. They are visibly desperate. They are afraid. They want the next congress to be like every other one, an inventory of complaints and promises. But they are terrified that someone will depart from the script and propose to delete Article 2 of their statutes. The Article 2 that demonstrates its absolute submission… and cowardice.

Translator’s notes:

* The Cuban poet, Jesús Orta Ruíz, was known as the “Naborí Indian.” After the defeat of the US in the Bay of Pigs, Orta Ruíz wrote the poem to commemorate the deaths of many civilians, including a boy whose white shoes were destroyed. A pair of bloody white shoes is on display in the Bay of Pigs museum, a memento of the first military defeat of the US in Latin America and the Caribbean.

** The first Vice President of UNEAC, Ernesto Limia Díaz, published a statement on Facebook on July 12, 2021, in support of the Regime’s suppression of the July 11th demonstrators.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Lack of Access to Justice in Cuban Prisons / Cubalex

Cubalex

Cubalex, 10 September 2024 — In Cuban prisons, persons deprived of their liberty face numerous barriers that prevent them from accessing justice and defending their human rights. Below, the Cubalex legal team summarises some key aspects of this problem in Cuban prisons.

Complaints and Retaliation

1. Retaliation for Complaints:

Prisoners who file complaints with military prosecutors often suffer violent reprisals instigated by prison authorities. They may be beaten or transferred to solitary confinement if they do not withdraw their complaints.

2. Threats and Coercion:

Prison guards threaten political detainees with transfer to prison camps with dangerous inmates in order to intimidate them. This practice is intended to discourage prisoners from engaging in human rights activities inside the prison.

3. Handling of ordinary prisoners:

Prison authorities use ordinary inmates to harass and control political prisoners. These inmates receive benefits in exchange for harassing political prisoners, creating an atmosphere of constant intimidation and violence.

Obstacles in the Judicial Process

1. Lack of medical care:

Medical care in prisons is inadequate and often intentionally denied. Prisoners who suffer severe beatings do not receive adequate medical care, and in many cases, doctors justify violence as punishment for alleged misbehaviour.

2. Restricted Access to Visitors:

Family and conjugal visits are suspended as a method of blackmail and punishment. Persons deprived of liberty who make complaints have their access to their families restricted as a reprisal, hindering their ability to receive external support and assert their rights.

3. Isolation Conditions:

Persons deprived of their liberty are subjected to long periods of solitary confinement in punishment cells without adequate justification and without access to basic resources. This practice not only violates the Mandela Rules, which prohibit prolonged solitary confinement, but also aggravates the physical and mental suffering of persons deprived of their liberty.

The following are examples of how the lack of access to justice is evidenced in Cuban prisons:

1. Interference in Complaints:

1.1 Another practice that often occurs in Cuban prisons is interference with complaints. Cubalex has reported cases where prison guards have incited other inmates to beat those who file complaints. This type of practice is done with the aim of forcing the person to withdraw the complaints. This systematic interference discourages persons deprived of their liberty from seeking legal solutions that can protect them from prisons. An example that illustrates this is the case of Lewis Calas Herrera, a common prisoner who works as “Discipline” in Company No. 1 of the Provincial Prison of Pinar del Río. According to our information, this person is used by the Chief of Internal Order, Lázaro Castillo Placencia, and the re-educator, First Lieutenant Nivaldo, to beat other inmates.

2. Critical Care Negligence:

2.1 There are numerous documented cases of neglect and denial of medical care. Many prisoners have suffered serious consequences due to the lack of timely medical care. Medical negligence in Cuban prisons was evidenced in the case of journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca. Despite his multiple health problems, the authorities of the Combinado del Este on several occasions denied Yuri access to the medicines brought by his wife, putting his life at risk.

Access to justice

The lack of access to justice in Cuba is a deep-rooted and systematic problem that severely limits rights. The Cuban judicial system, being closely linked to political power, has been criticised for its lack of independence, transparency and due process.The case of journalist José Luis Tan Estrada demonstrates the lack of access to justice in Cuba in several ways.

On 14 May 2024, the Havana Provincial Court dismissed the habeas corpus application filed on behalf of José Luis Tan Estrada. José Luis Tan Estrada, like many other activists and dissidents on the island, has been the victim of a judicial system that seems to be more focused on repressing dissent than on delivering justice.

The application for habeas corpus, a legal remedy designed to protect people from arbitrary detention, was rejected without adequate justification.

Tan Estrada’s case is not isolated; a further example is that of Daniel Moreno de la Peña. The situation of Daniel Moreno de la Peña, a Cuban political prisoner who weighs just 40 kilos (88 pounds) and is on the verge of death in prison, chillingly exemplifies the lack of access to justice in Cuba. Moreno has been detained for more than 18 months without trial, without even being able to see his file, in flagrant violation of his fundamental rights.

The case of the Caimanera protesters is another alarming example of the lack of access to justice in Cuba. These individuals have been denied access to documentation related to their cases, preventing them from preparing a proper defence and seriously violating their procedural rights. According to complaints by their relatives, the trial against these demonstrators is imminent, and the lack of transparency and access to legal information exacerbates the situation of defencelessness in which they find themselves. Such practices, common in the Cuban judicial system, demonstrate once again the urgent need for profound reforms to guarantee a fair and equitable judicial process.

These examples demonstrate how conditions and practices inside Cuban prisons not only violate international human rights standards, but also prevent persons deprived of their liberty from accessing justice and receiving humane and dignified treatment. It is essential to denounce these practices and to advocate for respect for human rights in all prisons.

The post Lack of Access to Justice in Cuban Prisons appeared first on Cubalex.

La entrada Falta de Acceso a la Justicia en las Prisiones Cubanas se publicó primero en Cubalex.

Translated by GH

Cuba Siglo 21 Requests Interrogation of the Former Cuban Pilot Who Participated in the Shoot Down of the Brothers to the Rescue Planes

Cuba Siglo 21 says that the case of Luis Raúl González-Pardo, who lives in the United States, “goes beyond the migration issue”

González-Pardo was director of Terminal 2 of José Martí International Airport / Mario J. Penton

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 September 2024 — The organization Cuba Siglo 21 pronounced this Tuesday on the case of the former pilot of the Cuban Armed Forces Luis Raúl González-Pardo, who has been living in the United States since April thanks to the Humanitarian Parole program. According to its report, the situation “goes beyond the immigration issue” and must be referred to the Florida Prosecutor’s Office, given the involvement of the former soldier in the shoot down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996.

The Prosecutor’s Office – argues Cuba Siglo 21 – must decide whether to proceed in trying González Pardo for being part of the group of pilots who harassed the unarmed aircraft of the humanitarian organization and killed four people (three Cubans with US citizenship and one resident). “At the very least, he should be interrogated about those facts.”

The issue in question, which the González-Pardo case once again puts into discussion, is the legal defense of “due obedience.” The international community, explains Cuba Siglo 21, does not recognize this allegation, which aims to justify ” first-degree, premeditated murder” with the statement that the person was only following orders.

Both the 13 de Marzo Tugboat sinking and the shooting down of the planes of Hermanos al Rescate were ambushed with premeditation and treachery from intelligence information

The organization gives two recent examples in Cuban history: the shoot down of the planes in 1996 – from which the former pilot cannot detach himself, although he allegedly did not shoot – and, two years earlier, the sinking of the 13 de Marzo tugboat, in which “unarmed Cuban families trying to migrate” died. continue reading

“Both the 13 de Marzo Tugboat sinking and the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes were ambushes with premeditation and treachery from intelligence information previously provided to the Cuban government by its agents and informants. They were not actions of war, but planned homicides. Both acts constitute crimes against humanity that do not expire,” the organization believes.

In the opinion of Cuba Siglo 21, those who boarded the Mig fighter jets – including González-Pardo, who was in number 22 – “left that day ready to kill.” In the recording of the radio communications of the attack, it argues, the former pilot reports that one of the Brothers to the Rescue planes was “in his sights” and that he was waiting for instructions to proceed. This action “leaves no doubt about the intentions that morning of the migrant who now lives peacefully in Jacksonville, Florida.”

“It’s not about intolerance, revenge or resentment, nor about ’settling the score’ with that pilot. What is actually urgent is to bring to trial in this case the very concept of ‘due obedience’ to criminal orders that are almost without exception raised by human rights violators in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and other similar regimes,” summarizes the statement.

This Monday, the independent journalist Mario Pentón tried to communicate with the pilot

This Monday, when independent journalist Mario Pentón tried to communicate with the pilot, González-Pardo claimed that much of what had been said about him in the media was “false.” Then, however, he hung up the phone and deleted his WhatsApp number. He had described his situation as “very difficult.” After a lifetime in the service of the Regime – first as a military pilot and then in civil aviation positions, as director of Terminal 2 of the José Martí International Airport – he had accepted the Humanitarian Parole offered by the United States. “I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do, or if I’m going to give interviews or not, mainly because of some additional situations that I have and that can affect me,” he said.

Pentón also shared this Tuesday an internal document from the US Department of State, obtained by Martí Noticias and dated 2016 – in the midst of the thaw initiated by then-President Barack Obama – in which González-Pardo asks to speed up the US consular interview to grant him a tourist visa for being a “facilitator” of high-level travel and a “key diplomatic contact” when organizing exchanges between the two countries. His visit – to “observe firsthand American culture” – was considered of interest by Washington, so his consular interview was moved up twice.

According to several sources, González-Pardo was the man who was at the controls of the Mig 29 that chased José Basulto

According to several sources, González-Pardo was the man who was at the controls of the Mig 29 that chased José Basulto – the leader of Brothers to the Rescue – to the north of the 24th parallel, in the Straits of Florida. Basulto himself confirmed this information to the military pilot Orestes Lorenzo, who escaped to the United States in 1991 and returned, despite the risks, to pick up his family.

After it became known that Washington gave the go-ahead to the former pilot, a barrage of criticism and questioning about the Cuban migrant has fallen on US authorities.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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.

‘Whoever Sets Prices in Cuba Has Never Gotten Up at Two in the Morning to Milk a Cow’

The Cuban State pays 15,000 pesos for an animal, processes it and sells it for 60,000 pesos, denounce the producers.

The plan is to convince the peasants to provide more milk to the Empresa de Productos Lácteos(Dairy Products Enterprise) / / Periódico 26

14ymedio biggerIPS* (via 14ymedio), Havana, 18 September 2024 — Producers in Cuba’s agricultural sector consider that when it comes to producing and marketing food products such as milk and meat, Resolution 275/2024 of the Ministry of Agriculture is increasingly distant from the urgent needs of the country and even more so from the Cuban countryside.

“The fact that a state-owned company pays 38 pesos for a liter of milk does not take into account the costs of producing it or the prices of supplies,” comments farmer Armando Zamora on the regulation that obliges him to sell most of his products to state-owned companies at pre-established prices.

In this regard, he gives the following example: “A roll of wire costs between 30,000 and 36,000 Cuban pesos (CUP), about 100 or 120 U.S. dollars, depending on the exchange rate in the informal market, where the value of 1 dollar is around 300 CUP.

“The resolution says that the priority is the state order, but the price they [state-owned companies] pay, compared to the 100 CUP paid in the informal market for the same liter, makes the pocket decide, not the conscience,” he adds. continue reading

“The price they [state-owned companies] pay, compared to the 100 CUP paid in the informal market for the same liter, makes the pocket decide, not the conscience”

After insisting that he sees no prospects for 2025, the worker linked to livestock farming for 19 years reflects: “Whoever sets those prices has never gotten up at two in the morning to milk a cow”.

Another long-standing unresolved problem is the difference between what the state-owned company pays the producer for beef and what the industry earns.

According to Zamora, the state companies “pay 15,000 pesos for an animal and when they process and sell it, they get 60,000 pesos. The one who spent years raising it, planting feed and taking care of it so that it would not be stolen is the one who earns the least… Without incentives, there will be no greater production”.

Amid a severe production crisis, dependence on imports and high food prices, most of the opinions warn of the negative aspects of the new resolution of the Ministry of Agriculture, published in the Official Gazette on September 4.

Designed to organize and control the marketing of agricultural, forestry and tobacco goods by 2025, it proposes to “increase supply to all destinations through the state channels and link production with the marketing process.

It applies to all actors in the productive structure of the agricultural system: agricultural cooperatives, grassroots enterprises and business units, micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (state-owned, private and mixed), landowners and other legitimate owners of land and agricultural and forestry producers.

The Resolution calls for “increasing the supply to all destinations through the state channel, as well as linking production with the commercialization process”

In the contracting process – the signing of contracts made by state entities to purchase agricultural products – not only are new economic actors engaged in productive activities incorporated, but also entities that process or market agricultural, forestry and tobacco products.

More than 79% of Cuba’s agricultural land is state-owned, however only 32.2% is exploited, with low production levels in most crops: rice (22.7%), vegetables (16.8%), corn (16.3%), root crops (9.8%), beans (9.2%), fruit trees (8.3%), according to data from the National Statistics and Information Office (Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información).

Conversely, private, individual farmers or cooperative members produce more than 75% of the food sold on the island.

The Credit and Service Cooperatives, which operate 36.3% of the agricultural area, account for the majority of private production (except for rice) of fruit trees (83.4%), beans (79.4%), root crops (76.7%) and vegetables (75.5%).

According to the report presented to the Cuban parliament in July of this year about the inspection of the Ministry of the Food Industry, there are breaches in the contracts with 9,100 food producers.

According to the Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso, most agricultural production is affected due to causes such as shortages of fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, fuels and animal feed.

According to the report presented to the Cuban parliament in July of this year about the inspection of the Ministry of the Food Industry, there are breaches in the contracts with 9,100 food producers

Amid this scenario, the new measures reinforce the priority in the contracting that state enterprises make with the different actors of the agro-productive system, aimed at satisfying state demand, and supporting the plan of the economy and the national production balances.

“What kind of contracting for 2025 are we going to talk about if the 2024 contract still has not been paid,” says a management member of a local agricultural business unit in Havana, who prefers to remain anonymous.

As on previous occasions, the publication of measures regulating the operation of both the state and the private sector has given rise to comments from the economic point of view.

“The new resolution of the Ministry of Agriculture could be the worst economic policy blunder in Cuba since the reorganization. It is based on the erroneous diagnosis that inadequate contracting is a significant cause of the weak supply response capacity of the agricultural sector”, says economist Pedro Monreal in his account on X.

The new resolution of the Ministry of Agriculture could be the worst blunder in Cuba’s economic policy since the reorganization

For this analyst, it “inverts the dynamics of the connection between production and distribution. In reality, it is the supply failure derived from the lack of supplies and infrastructure, low investment levels and dysfunctional markets that originate contracting problems”.

The new rule “expresses the arrogant notion that centralized planning is more effective than the market in ensuring economic calculation (rational distribution of resources). The rule is a variant of forced contracting,” he argues.

Monreal also notes: “In their state-based fabulation, the planners may be increasing uncertainty in Cuba’s largest segment of private activity, which is not only crucial for food security but also the country’s largest employer”.

* Editor’s note: This press release is part of IPS Cuba Special coverage of New economic actors and local development in Cuba (2023-2025).

Translated by LAR

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More Than a Million Cubans Suffer Water Cuts Due to Blackouts and Other Breakdowns

Ten generators donated by China will provide 18 MW to Sancti Spíritus and Cienfuegos when there is fuel

The population relies on ’water thieves’ in the midst of a desperate situation / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, September 18, 2024 — More than a million users are now affected by water cuts in Cuba. In the first week of September the authorities admitted that the figure was about 600,000 people. A few days later, the increase was significant, with an average of 713,000, to which are added “some 300,000 people who receive water from the “pipas,” the tanker trucks, whose cycles can be more than 15 days,” explained Antonio Rodríguez, president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), this Tuesday on State TV’s Round Table program.

The official explained that those who receive the supply by tanker trucks have “in some cases very extended cycles” (low frequency) and summarized the three fundamental problems: the state of the pumping equipment, the lack of electricity and the breaks in the main pipes.

“At the moment, 40% of the affectations are from broken pumping equipment and 39% from lack of electricity, and that has been happening since October,” he summarized. Rodríguez explained that they are working together with the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (UNE) to minimize the problems caused by the lack of fuel. The main task is for the electric generators to relieve the blackouts; that’s why the INRH has increased its supply capacity from 36% to 72%, but, he says, there is not always enough fuel for them to work. continue reading

The main task is for the electric generators to relieve the blackouts; that’s why the INRH has increased its supply capacity from 36% to 72%, but, he says, there is not always fuel for them to work

In this context and after a deficit of more than 1,000 MW reported yesterday at peak hour, the authorities announced that the Communist Party of China had donated ten generators that will go to Sancti Spíritus and Cienfuegos, although they will barely provide 18 MW, and only as long as they have the required fuel.

As for the pumping equipment, the data are devastating. There are 3,674 pumping stations of which 3,381 work. There are 1,200 that are more than 10 years old, 229 that are not “in position” [due to lack of a pumping source] and 209 that “do not meet the technical requirements of expenditure and load, but they are the ones we have and that are working,” he said.

They are joined by 481 reserve pumping stations, of which only 127 work, an added problem because that prevents maintenance to the equipment with its consequent deterioration. “By not having spare pumps when the main one breaks, until we comply with the transfer cycle and take them to the workshops and repair them, all that time we have to try to supply those who receive water with the “pipas,” and we know the difficulties we have with fuel,” he stressed.

As a result, the whole country is suffering from a lack of drinking water and sanitation, with Pinar del Río, Havana, Las Tunas and Holguín in the lead, according to the Institute’s data.

Rodríguez, however, has the same hope as his partner in the battle, the Minister of Energy and Mines, and he has trust in solar power. This Tuesday he reported that between 2023 and 2024, 1,200 pumps have arrived in the country, of which 866 are “for the change in the energy matrix,” he said, referring to photovoltaics. There are 200 of them that have not yet been assembled, almost all of this type.

The whole country is suffering from a lack of drinking water and sanitation, with Pinar del Río, Havana, Las Tunas and Holguín in the lead

There are 1,312 pumping stations that need less than 10 kilowatts. There are 866 on the Island, among which 678 are in place but only 91 provide service. However, Rodríguez congratulated himself because 350,000 people are supplied thanks to them, “especially in isolated communities.”

In addition, there are 300 that use hybrid technology (fed by the National Electric Service and by solar). “Eight stations are planned for the first stage in Pinar del Río, 15 in Sancti Spíritus, 16 in Holguín and 9 in Cienfuegos. For the second stage, 15 are planned for Villa Clara and Aguas Turquino in Santiago,” he added.

The evening broadcast had a specific section dedicated to Havana, the province that concentrates not only more inhabitants but also more economic activity and political power, and, most worryingly for the regime, where protests are more easily ignited.

“On the night of 21 July 2024, an electrical failure occurred in the high tension lines that connect the Cuenca Sur reservoir with the Central System. This caused a sudden stop and, as a result, several hydraulic valves malfunctioned, which broke the driver and caused breakage in four pumping stations from the well field. This was the beginning of a complex period in the water supply service to the capital,” Rodríguez said to explain the nightmarish weeks that the capital is experiencing.

According to his calculations, there have been more than 199,000 inhabitants affected by the hydraulic network, in addition to 12,500 who receive water from “pipas,” whose cycles have lengthened due to the shortage of vehicles and fuel. “Today, the affectation from networks is 67,295 people and from lengthened “pipa” cycles, 7,551 inhabitants, for a total of 74,846 affected inhabitants,” he said. The west (La Lisa and Marianao) is the most affected part, but just this Tuesday the problems spread to East Havana, “which belongs to another system.”

According to his calculations, there have been more than 199,000 inhabitants affected by the hydraulic network, in addition to 12,500 who receive the water from “pipas”

Of the 279 stations in the capital, 22 do not have pumping equipment, and 77 do not meet the necessary requirements. Despite this, Rodríguez announced equipment installations that, he promised, will improve the situation in the very short term, in addition to medium-term investments for the same purpose. “Due to the blockade*, many times, even if we have the equipment in the ports, it is difficult for us to ship it,” he said, although Cuba has “a line of credit for the acquisition of new equipment for Havana this year.”

Judging by the data offered by Rodríguez, the economy is not at this precise moment a problem for the medium term, although the lack of workers is. “The average salary here is only 3,500 pesos, but there are four companies with salaries below 3,000 pesos, which deprives us of people who know how to operate the drivers. We are working to find a solution to this issue.”

The situation of the three factories on the Island that make water pipes is good: “We have enough raw materials and pipes for the investment program and the maintenance works,” he said, “although we have to import supplies for large drivers, mainly steel.”

“This year we have a plan of 3.2 billion pesos for investments and maintenance. At the end of August we have 119 percent compliance, and we have now received approval for 600 million pesos to add to these works. However, these plans are costing us up to 30% more than in previous years, due to the increase in the prices for products and services,” he explained.

The Island has installed 181 kilometers of water mains so far and has completed 204 works, he stressed, and he added that “there is no province in the country where we do not have some kind of action, but the problems are great.”

Rodríguez displayed the water balance with graphs showing the amount of rainfall and the filling of reservoirs on the Island, which is not a real obstacle at the moment. Authorities estimate that there are about 39,000 people affected by the drought, a small number in relation to other causes. He did consider problematic the loss of water from leaks, more than 5,000 in the country, of which 2,000 are in Havana.

*Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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’Bancarización’ — Banking Reform — and Lack of Resources Complicate Payments to State Musicians in Cuba

Every month, the members of the economic department of Sancti Spíritus face “old-fashioned” payments, with pencil and paper

The group Parranda Típica Espirituana is one of those affected by the non-payments / Escambray

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 18 September 2024 — A dilapidated “Frankenstein-style” computer, obsolete programs and a terrible internet connection are just the tip of the iceberg of the problems suffered by the Music and Entertainment Marketing Company in Sancti Spíritus. The bancarización [banking reform] link in the province has been broken on the weakest side: the wages of workers, who rarely receive what the State owes them on time.

The problem is not only the technological obsolescence of the company, but also its “historic debts” – 658,000 pesos of overdue wages – an even more complex panorama since mandatory electronic payments were decreed last year. Despite the fact that the musicians had to have bank cards processed by the entity, it has not even met that basic requirement. For those who do have them, payment rarely arrives on time. The summary of one of the employees is pithy: “We are always uncertain of when we will get paid.”

According to the Sancti Spíritus newspaper, Escambray, the company hit rock bottom in 2022 and since then has not raised its head, “despite showing signs of economic recovery,” which the newspaper does not define. Today, however, it can barely support its administrative expenses and pay what the contracts stipulate. continue reading

Everything has been “stumbles and falls” in the Marketing Company’s attempts to execute the State’s guidelines

These factors meant that, rather than arriving late to bancarización, it never had a chance of taking the leap requested by the Central Bank of Cuba. Since then, everything has been “stumbles and falls” in its attempts to execute the State’s directions. To give an idea, the newspaper mentions the case of Antonio Sosa, a skilled musician from Sancti Spíritus, who has not been paid for three months because the company has not sent him a bank card.

Sosa doesn’t have too many illusions about the plastic: even when it reaches his hands, he’ll have to figure out “how to get the money.” The lines to extract cash from ATMs and the numerous difficulties for its availability in the banks do not augur well for the artist.

The Marketing Company has been “very late” when it comes to applying bancarización, says Escambray. It should have prepared for the delivery of bank cards six months ago. It did not do it, it says, because of its characteristic lack of “demand.”

Interviewed by the newspaper, the leaders of the entity defend themselves. They assure that 90% of musicians have cards, despite the fact that some made mistakes entering their data into the system. To that must be added the “Frankenstein” device, an old computer with unknown parts that is not up to par – they allege – or having the national software to process wages.

Every month, the members of the economic department face “old-fashioned” payments, with pencil and paper, which delays all the procedures. The new computer will not arrive soon, because they have to “develop an investment plan that gradually meets those and other needs.” It is the problem of belonging to the State’s “business system,” concludes the economist Caridad Ruiz. “We have to finance ourselves, and today we do not have the financial coverage to assume that expense,” she regrets.

“There’s no excuse for doing the payroll by hand. Here people work under the gun”

Others, such as the deputy director of the Marketing Company, do not agree with this system and ask for more resources. “There’s no excuse for doing the payrolls by hand. Here people work under the gun. Under these conditions it’s impossible to achieve anything else. Musicians and workers demand their right to be paid on time,” he says.

Gone are the days when subsidized musicians – paid a fixed salary as a gesture of “State protection” – received their salary in the first four days of the month. Guillermo González, director of the Parranda Típica Espirituana, complains of having lost count of “the last time he was paid on time.” First, the money arrived between the 10th and the 15th. Now it’s “when they pay it.”

His group hears one justification after another from the managers, such as the lack of staff in the economic departments of artistic companies. But there are never solutions.

Among the half dozen managers interviewed by Escambray, not a single one could promise an improvement. The problem – described in detail – has no end in sight, and the bosses only know how to repeat as a litany what their superiors in Havana tell them: “We have to continue working.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘It’s As if They Hate the People,’ Cubans Complain About the State Electric Company’s Blackouts

For this Tuesday, the state forecasts a deficit of 1,030 megawatts during peak hours

Many businesses, both private and State, have not been able to open in recent days / EFE

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, September 17, 2024 — Many Cuban neighborhoods will suffer from blackouts this Tuesday. The forecast of the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) once again exceeds 1,000 megawatts (MW). This has put the citizens of the Island, who live hopelessly pending information on power cuts, on a war footing.

“This is no way to live. Yesterday they shut down the power practically all day, and for today we expect the same,” says Norma, a woman from Sancti Spíritus who lives in the provincial capital. “This hits us very hard with the heat,” she adds.

From Holguín, another city besieged by constant cuts, Ernesto tells this newspaper that lately there are few nights when he can sleep. “They cut the power from 6:00 am to 12:00 pm, from 6:00 pm to 12:00 am and then from 3:00 am to 6:00 am. This is crazy. Most of the shops in the city aren’t open, and the cafeterias that don’t have generators cannot provide service to the public,” says Ernesto, who stayed awake yesterday fanning his son so that he could rest.

Between blackouts and the suffocating heat, both Norma and Ernesto are losing hope that the situation will improve

As the days go by between the blackouts and the suffocating heat, both Norma and Ernesto lose hope that the situation will improve. “I know that today they’ll give us another story, but when you least expect it, they will take away the electricity again,” Ernesto concludes. continue reading

He’s not wrong. According to the State’s daily report, the national electricity system (SEN) gave only 45 minutes of relief yesterday. “At 7:48 a.m. yesterday morning the service was restored, and from 8:33 a.m. the service began to be affected again due to a generation capacity deficit, which it has not been possible to restore,” the UNE indicated.

If on Monday the maximum “affectation” in the peak hours – the early hours of the night – was 973 MW, this Tuesday the deficit will be 960 MW (there will be an availability of 2,240 MW compared to a maximum demand of 3,200 MW), which will finally affect a total of 1,030 MW.

The UNE also reminds the population that five units of the thermoelectric power plants are stopped due to breakdowns: unit 8 of the Máximo Gómez, in Mariel (Artemisa); unit 5 of the 10 de Octubre, in Nuevitas (Camagüey); unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez, in Felton (Holguín); unit 5 of the Renté, in Santiago de Cuba; and unit 1 of the Ernesto Guevara, in Santa Cruz del Norte (Mayabeque). However, it reports that the latter will enter the SEN in the “peak hour” with 70 MW.

Likewise, they report that 59 distributed generation plants are out of service due to lack of fuel.

With this scenario, social media users have not held back either, and this Tuesday they flooded the daily report of the UNE with almost 400 comments, most of them negative and even against the Government. “There is no fuel for thermoelectric plants, but there is fuel for [Prime Minister] Marrero’s, [President] Canel’s and [Raul Castro’s grandson] El Cangrejo’s* cars. The yachts and fleets of cars of the Castros do not lack fuel either,” said Raúl Eduardo Rojas, from Pinar del Río.

“Now all we need is the breakdown of the Guiteras plant to see how they run to get the fuel that suddenly appears,” says Amado Amed Díaz Seijo from the same province. And he wonders: “I would like to know what they have done with all the dollars for fuel collection, because it’s been a while now, and everything is the same or worse.”

Dainy Ramos has power from eight to twelve at night, and they shut it off again until after four in the morning: “What child can get up for school or what person can get up with encouragement to go to work? They are killing us,” the young woman lamented.

Bobby Cabanas, retired, also expressed himself: “They are abusing the people; it’s as if they hate the people.”

Others, for their part, called for a true, radical change: “The highest leadership of this country must resign. They have been running this country for 65 years, and there is no progress of any kind. Don’t let them cling to power; let’s have a popular referendum.”

Off the internet, at street level, the inconveniences also multiply. “There is no light anywhere,” complained a taxi driver who had spent the morning in the capital driving through large areas, such as Marianao, El Vedado and Diez de Octubre. At street crossings, the extinguished traffic lights were a sign of the crisis, with the consequent danger of accidents.

*Translator’s note: El Cangrejo, “The Crab” is the popular nickname for Raúl Castro’s grandson, who apparently is clumsy, and is also his grandfather’s bodyguard.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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.

Venezuela Is Heading Towards the ‘Real Socialism’ of Cuba

The control exercised by fear is inconceivable in a society in which what is not expressly allowed is a crime

People run during clashes between opponents and members of the Bolivarian National Guard, in a demonstration after the presidential elections, in Caracas / EFE

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 15 September 2024 — During my almost twelve years of residence in Venezuela, I had opportunities that I never enjoyed in my longed-for Cuba. There were problems, some very serious, but the framework of rights and freedoms that we all enjoyed generated spaces for rectification.

What I liked the most was freedom of the press and open discussions in a framework of cordiality and respect. Coming from the absolute social control existing in my country to an environment of tolerance without fanaticism was an invaluable change

There was no censorship, let alone self-censorship. Each scribe said what he had in mind, including those who warned of a disastrous future and were considered prophets of doom.

With the passage of time, I learned how politely inclusive Venezuelan society was. I met old guerrillas, people who had been allied with Fidel Castro to destroy national democracy, and, when they realized what that guy would bring to their country, broke with the tyrant. continue reading

Each scribe said what he thought, including those who warned of a disastrous future and were considered prophets of doom

Most were eminent leaders, such as Américo Martin and Teodoro Petkoff, among others, who did not take long to denounce and oppose Hugo Chávez’s proposal to castrate Venezuela.

There were sympathizers and allies of Castroism in the news media and many organizations. However, my journalistic collaborations were never censored, although I cannot say the same for other entities, such as the Ateneo de Caracas, where Dr. Silvia Meso was told that a documentary critical of Fidel and the Revolution would never be screened there.

There were newspapers and television stations that did not like to spread the news that the exiled Cuban community was proclaiming, and personalities who canonized Fidel Castro in life.

There were Castro supporters even in the Armed Forces, as indicated in the WLRN Opinions program by retired general Carlos Peñaloza. Hugo Chávez, said the high-ranking officer, was protected by other superior soldiers; consequently, there were few moles.

Unfortunately for Venezuelans and the hemisphere, those who warned about the fifth column of the enemies of democracy were not wrong.

Hugo Chávez, said the high-ranking officer, was protected by other superior military personnel; consequently, there were few moles

Venezuela’s present is much more chaotic than predicted, and I warn that it can be even more serious if the president-elect, Edmundo González, a refugee in Spain, does not assume the position for which he was elected by the majority of the people.

Nicolas Maduro, Diosdado Cabello and the rest of the Janissaries* will be forced to change all the government and state paraphernalia, imposing “real socialism” – the Cuban kind – as the only method that will relatively guarantee them the preservation of power.

There are few countries that have suffered a totalitarian regime with the type of real socialism established by the Soviets from 1917, even fewer than those crushed by the Castro variant, one of the cruelest that can be considered, similar to North Korea or the Albania of Enver Hoxha, another bloodthirsty tyrant who ruled his country for 41 years, almost as long as Fidel Castro at 49 years.

Totalitarianism extinguishes the most elementary notion of justice and proscribes the enjoyment of freedoms, in such a way that the most complacent and ignorant subject realizes that everything has changed after it establishes itself. I emphasize this because many citizens do not understand, until they lose them, the invaluable greatness of the insignificant spaces they enjoy – the “little things,” as Joan Manuel Serrat would say.

Totalitarianism extinguishes the most elementary notion of justice and proscribes the enjoyment of freedoms

Sectarianism and intolerance will lead society to a state of perpetual tension. Civil society organizations, including trade unions, professional groups and other associations will become part of the gigantic transmission belt that will move the new state.

Economic activity depends on political interests. The owners will become the proletariat. Repression will be a part of the new state. The control exercised by fear is inconceivable in a society in which what is not expressly allowed is a crime.

Political parties will be declared illegal; there will be no elections, but there will be votes. Education will become a weapon of intimidation and control when private and religious schools disappear, assuming the characteristics of a State theocracy, since its leaders are now the new gods.

*Translator’s note: The Janissaries were the troops who protected the Sultan in Ottoman Turkey. The term also means “devoted allies and followers.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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More Than 208,000 Cubans Arrived in the United States This Year

In August 2024, 11,744 Cubans arrived in the United States / EFE

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 September 2024 — The figures for the exodus of Cubans are sounding the alarm again. Since October 1, 2023 – when fiscal year 2024 began in the United States – the Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) registered the arrival of 208,308 migrants from the Island. The number exceeds last year, when 200,287 people arrived during the same period.

Despite the constant flow of migrants, the data updated by the US authorities and published this Monday indicate that August has been the month in which the fewest Cubans arrived, only 11,744 people. In fact, this decrease in arrivals has been a constant since the past months of May (18,984), June (17,561) and July (15,642).

The decrease in the figures, according to CBP Commissioner Troy Miller, is due to “compliance with the law and the consequences for illegal entry.” In June, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order that restricts access to asylum for those who enter the country irregularly. “Border arrests have decreased by more than 50%,” a statement said. continue reading

Between January and August 29, Cuba has received 1,046 deportees from different countries. In April 2023, deportation flights resumed, mainly for people considered “inadmissible” after being detained on the US border with Mexico.

The fishing boat in which 43 Cuban rafters arrived at Sombrero beach this Tuesday / X/@USBPChiefMIP

In the last week of August, the United States deported 48 Cubans – 43 men and 5 women – on a flight to the Island. Among them were seven rafters. One of the migrants, the Ministry of the Interior reported, was “detained in Cuba because he was wanted by the police.”

The same report indicates that a total of 111,000 Cubans have benefited from the Humanitarian Parole Program promoted by the US Government since its entry into force in January 2023.

The statistics were released one day before 43 rafters made landfall at Playa Sombrero, in Cayo Marathon. The Border Patrol put them in custody for deportation, according to officer Andrew Scharnweber.

The Border Patrol warned the rafters, who made the crossing in a fishing boat named Zeno, that they could “face criminal charges.” Likewise, “they will not be eligible to apply for asylum” and will be prohibited from entering US territory for at least five years.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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.

‘If the Situation Continues Like This, People Won’t Be Able To Take It Anymore’ Warns a Recently Released 11J Political Prisoner

After being released from Guamajal prison in Santa Clara city, former prisoner José Rodríguez Herrada, 52, was welcomed with joy at his home by family and friends.

José Rodríguez Herrada, sentenced to three years and six months for participating in the mass protests in Caibarién, Villa Clara / Courtesy

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 15 September 2024 — José Rodríguez Herrada, sentenced to three years and six months for participating in the mass protests in Caibarién, Villa Clara, on 11 July 2021, was discharged from prison on Friday. After his release from Guamajal prison in Santa Clara city, the 52-year-old ex-convict was joyfully welcomed home by family and friends.

Rodriguez Herrada, who before his arrest worked as a bricklayer, considers that the reasons to demonstrate are still present in Cuba: “If the situation continues like this, people will not be able to stand it any longer, although there is also a lot of fear because of the repression,” he warns in a telephone conversation with 14ymedio. “My town of Caibarién is much worse, there is no water, you have to walk around with a bag of money to buy food, the streets are destroyed, the houses are falling apart.”

Convicted under the crime of public disorder, Rodriguez Herrada’s appeal was rejected and he had to spend almost the entirety of his sentence behind bars. “I got out four months early because I was entitled to it, not because they were kind to me, or anything like that,” he explained to this newspaper regarding his stay in Section 5 of the Guamajal Men’s Prison.

I got out four months early, because I was entitled to it, not because they were kind to me, or anything like that,” he says

His time in prison was full of hard times, as he explains. In January 2022, Rodríguez Herrada carried out a hunger strike in the Villa Clara prison called “El Pre.” With his fasting, the prisoner demanded the nullification of the testimonies against him provided by prosecution witnesses in the trial held in November 2021, considering them false and fabricated in order to convict him. continue reading

According to sentence 137 of 2021, to which this newspaper had access, the head of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) unit of Caibarién, Ariel López Águila and Yandier Moreno Urbay, a Political Officer of the Ministry of the Interior in the territory, assured the Court that José Rodríguez Herrada, together with activists Carlos Michael Morales and Javier Delgado Torna led a large group of people who “shouted slogans against the Government” and incited other neighbors to join the protest.

Although the three defendants acknowledged their participation in the demonstration, they did not admit to having been the main protagonists. They only “joined a group of young people who had already initiated such acts” but their statements were dismissed.

Last March, the Patmos Institute denounced that Rodriguez Herrada had been denied the right to religious assistance. “This past March 18, a religious service was being held there, which they allow every month, and the chief officer of the correctional officers, Israel Lebrán, rejected José Rodríguez Herrada’s right to participate.”

In recent months, several of those convicted for the 11J protests have been released from prison after serving their sentences. Among them is activist Angélica Garrido, who was released on July 10, one day before the third anniversary of the anti-government protests for which she was imprisoned and after having served her sentence in its entirety. In prison remains her sister, writer María Cristina Garrido, who still has to serve four of the seven years of her sentence.

You have to walk around with a bag of money to buy food, the streets are destroyed, and the houses are falling to pieces

Carlos Michel Morales Rodríguez, an activist and independent journalist, was released from prison last March after spending two years and ten months behind bars.

Also released from prison in January of this year was political prisoner Yusmely Moreno González, sentenced to three years in prison for also participating in the 11J demonstrations, which in her case took place in the town of Surgidero de Batabanó, in the province of Mayabeque.

“Freedom on completion,” so read the brief document Moreno González received upon her discharge from the Villa Delicia work camp in Havana, where she had been transferred after spending most of her sentence in the Western Women’s Prison, also known as El Guatao.

During the third anniversary of 11J, the Madrid-based NGO Prisoners Defenders used the occasion to detail that in the last three years, they have accounted for a total of 1,728 political prisoners. Of these, “150 were listed as political prisoners at the beginning of July 2021 and 1,578 have been new additions to the list during these three years, while there are 611 among the total monitored by our organization who have since served their sentences in their entirety.”

Translated by LAR

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Cuban Former Spy Gerardo Hernández Regrets Young People’s Lack of Interest in the CDR

Hernández proposes installing security cameras on the blocks to replace the snitches

The elderly from the neighborhood and old members of the CDR founded by Castro remain / EFE

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 17 September 2024 — Former Cuban spy Gerardo Hernandez argued on Monday that the organization he coordinates – the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) – is not, as everything seems to indicate, anachronistic. However, fewer and fewer people , especially young people, want to take on leadership positions in the country’s more than 138,000 neighborhoods. “Who takes on the tasks of the committees?” he cried, when interviewed by Bohemia magazine.

“When you approach someone to take up a position on a committee, the answer is usually that after working eight hours there is not enough time to get involved in the organization’s tasks, because they have to cook – not only women, sometimes men too. If you go to a student, they tell you that the university takes up a lot of their time and they can’t get involved in community tasks either,” he explains.

There remain the elders of the neighborhood, old cadres of the CDRs founded by Castro and for whom the ex-spy promises a new splendor. Now 64 years after their foundation, however, the CDRs seem to have lost all function and the ex-spy attempts to recall it: “It is not idle to say that it is a privilege for any country in the world to have on the blocks, in the neighborhoods, an organization that, no matter how many difficulties we have in its functioning – good, regular or bad – offers the facility of being able to pick up a phone to call one of our leaders in any municipality.” continue reading

“When you approach someone to take a position on a committee, the answer is usually that after working eight hours there is not enough time to get involved in the tasks of the organization.”

The speaker is a “hero of the Republic of Cuba,” Bohemia reminds readers, and his arguments should be heard at the highest levels. “He does not forget that for many, the time of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution had already passed, because there were no more firecrackers, threats, or aggression, but they were also quite inactive,” comments the magazine.

Hernández is concerned about the networks, where he intends to “not be left behind” in terms of propaganda. It is about “positioning labels,” the more profiles the better, so that the organization can be noticed. The usefulness of the CDRs, in his opinion, was demonstrated during the pandemic, when the presidents of each neighborhood were in charge of distributing the few supplies that the State made available to them. It was the moment, Hernández argues, when he discovered the power of the structure.

In the future, he says, they will be in charge of counting voters or gathering useful information for the Government: “Who knows (how many) members of the CDR no longer live there or have reached the age required to exercise their right to vote? Who can provide information about people who have died or are recently incorporated residents?” The former spy says he has the answer: “The CDR, which facilitates the flow of information and its updating more quickly.”

Hernández enthusiastically claims that he will succeed in increasing blood donations and will take charge – with multiple tours around the country – of engaging those who are reluctant. He has already prepared the logo for his “campaign,” the “allegorical song” and a detailed list of activities.

He has his sights set on foreign organizations, such as the Nou Barris Cuba Solidarity Brigade, to whom he has just given a prize: a ceramic sculpture by Lázaro Valdés, known as Matacochino. “For three decades, in good times, bad times and regular times, this Barcelona brigade has been with us, with our colleague Maruja Ruiz at the helm,” he says. The 38 prizes he has awarded so far are 38 potential foreign allies who will help, he says, the “cleaning and beautification program” of the neighborhoods.

The former spy says he has the answer: “The CDR, which makes it easier for information to flow and be updated more quickly.”

For the moment, the program faces numerous obstacles – the lack of fuel and the excessive accumulation of garbage – which Hernández washes his hands of, although he does not specifically point the finger at either the Municipal Services or the Ministry of Transport: “It is not our responsibility and we are not responsible for collecting the garbage.” In Cuba, there is also a “lack of culture, of dirtiness and carelessness,” he admits

On the other hand, there is urban agriculture, which Hernández wants to implement by reinforcing the always frustrated project “Cultivate your little piece.” Faced with the failure of the initiative, he contrasts the patios and rooftops of the Saavedra family, in Santiago de Cuba. Bohemia illustrates his words with a photo: behind a few flowerbeds, barely planted, a giant face of Fidel Castro and several flags of the CDR stand out. “It is a reference patio,” he celebrates.

Hernández says that with the return of the accountability meetings, postponed since 2021, the CDRs have a new opportunity to prove their usefulness. They will be – he argues – in charge of mobilizing those who do not want to meet. “This is going to be a big challenge,” he predicts

No one should expect immediate improvements in the CDR. After all, he is only committed to implementing changes “in the long term” and stresses that the organization was not handed over to him “in an optimal state.” His problem is, above all, the lack of people who want to be leaders. He does not understand the reluctance. In the meantime, he dreams of security cameras in the blocks to replace the “CDR guards” and more sophisticated neighborhood surveillance systems

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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.