Translating Cuba

In the Cuban Athens ‘Everything Is Done on Foot’ Due to the Transport Crisis

Not even the “blues,” the inspectors in charge of intercepting vehicles and boarding passengers in Matanzas, “impose respect”

In peak hours, the mass of Matanzas residents who accumulate at the transport stops must decide whether to wait or leave on foot / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, April 27, 2024 — A Transmetro bus passes by and does not stop. A few minutes later, one from Transtur follows it. Travelers on any road in Matanzas look in desperation at the empty vehicles with the long-awaited air conditioning. “Not even the cars with State license plates stop anymore,” they lament, despite the fact that the leaders have given them the order to pick up passengers.

Not even the soothsayer Nostradamus could predict the times in which public buses circulate within the city of Matanzas. The traditional routes have been terminated for a long time, in an instability that significantly affects the daily routine of the matanceros.

Whether they are articulated, panoramic or assembled by pieces in a state workshop – such as the Dianas – the buses do not work at the same time, much less every day. That translates into a mass of stacked and sweaty Cubans who, when the rush hour arrives at stops, must decide whether to wait for a State car that deigns to pick them up or walk to their destination.

“The blockade does not come from outside, the blockade is here inside,” emphasizes an old man who claims – fanning himself with an improvised leaf – to have been waiting for more than an hour for transportation to go from the historic center to the Peñas Altas area. “Is there no oil?” asks a woman and from the same line the answer emerges: “What there is is no shame, señora. Look at that bus: it’s empty. continue reading

“The blockade does not come from outside, the blockade is here inside,” emphasizes an old man

Not even the figures of the “blues” – inspectors in charge of intercepting vehicles and boarding passengers – “imposes respect” on the state Ladas and Kamazes. To top it all off, the old man still sitting at the stop says, they are as inefficient as the public transport itself. “They only work half a day and on weekends so you can’t expect them.” Nor do the forceful looks of the “blues” and their clipboards intimidate anyone.

The Government’s vehicles pass, wave, and the inspector says goodbye “as if it’s nothing.” When the cars are not known but have State plates, the official registers the number – or pretends to – on a sheet of paper so as not to “offend” overcrowded travelers.

In the end, the “weakest link,” tired of waiting, gets out of line and takes charge of the matter. Any well-formed line is abruptly interrupted when a bus appears. Even if it’s empty, there are pushes and offenses. Pregnant women, children, the elderly and disabled, called to board first, must cross the furious mass in order to get a seat and not run the risk of being left behind.

The disorder quickly becomes a feeding ground for thieves and pickpockets, who grab chains, cash and even cell phones. By the time they manage to get on the bus, many passengers have even been stripped of their identity cards.

The other side of the coin are the private carriers, who, in tune with inflation, impose their prices / 14ymedio

The other side of the coin is the private carriers, who, in line with inflation, impose their prices according to “their objective and subjective needs.” For a trip of a few kilometers, a motorcycle taxi charges between 300 and 500 pesos, Mario, the driver of an electric motorcycle, tells this newspaper. In the case of a vehicle, for the same distance, the price ranges between 50 and 100 pesos per person. The máquinas*, on the other hand, charge about 100 pesos.

According to Mario, those are just the “standard prices.” “If I rent or work at night, the costs go up.” The electric vehicles, which the Government announced last January with pomp and fanfare after buying them at $7,000 each, are far from meeting the city’s demand for transport

At the central transport stop, from which the old man was able to escape in an agricultural truck, a medical student now occupies his seat. “It can already be said with propriety that Matanzas is the Athens of Cuba and, like the ancient Athenians, we do everything on foot,” he mocks. A few streets ahead you can see the remains of the old tram line, inaugurated when the city was experiencing better times and the only blue was that of the bay.

*Translator’s note: Máquinas, almendrones and colectivos are overlapping names for similar services: generally a shared taxi service (and in some cases fixed-route) provided by classic American cars, which are now generally retrofitted with diesel engines because that fuel is more likely to be available than is gasoline.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Intellectuals and Castroism

The Cuban delegation that traveled to the Tampa Book Fair / Rogelio García / Facebook

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, April 27, 2024 — What drives many intellectuals to voluntarily submit to the authority of a despot? It is a question that overwhelms many ordinary citizens, because it is inconceivable that people who may be among those who lose the most in an autocratic society are among the most willing to pay tribute to a tyranny. This new reflection about intellectuals who voluntarily submit to an oppressor is relevant for the recent First International Book Fair that was held in Tampa, a poor imitation of the First Exiled Cuban Book Fair that opened in Miami in 2015, sponsored by journalist and writer Silvio Mancha and several exile organizations.

The Tampa Fair was tarnished by the presence and participation of home-grown Castro intellectuals. They create narratives to cover the failures and abuses of the Havana regime and even subscribe to documents which support the ignominies of the dictatorship as did Francisco López Sacha and Rigoberto Rodríguez Entenza, signatories of the letter that in 2022 endorsed the repression of the peaceful protests in Cuba against Castro and his lackeys. I clarify, not all servants live on the Island.

Cuban totalitarianism has been an absolute failure, but it is undeniable that its ability to survive must be added to other successes which highlight its talent for repression and its ability to attract servants in the creative arts, specifically in the media and literature. continue reading

Usually the intellectual is an individual who flees from commitments

Usually the intellectual is an individual who flees from commitments. Their freedom to do and think are the essential passports of their spirit. They are iconoclasts, rebels and destructors of ways of thinking.

However, apparently, there is something hidden in the Cuban creative consciousness that treasures a vulgar and cruel primitivism. Tempestuous passions can provoke reactions that obscure critical thinking. Castroism has been successful because it has bought or seduced many creators.

It is true that there are authors who irrupt into a controlled world, subject to a supreme authority, such as in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, where the new creators are subject to the guidelines that their predecessors managed with their genuflecting behaviors.

In those cases, an inevitable period of learning and convulsions is understandable, which will determine whether they are free citizens or applauders. However, those who came before the most recent are guilty of having created the mire that the new generation of intellectuals must go through in those countries.

Castroism doesn’t rest. Spying on and infiltrating free societies with hitmen is its life mission, universities being the main focus of attraction to capture those “enlightened” people who have served it with devotion.

In Cuba there is no NGO linked to the Government that is free and even less so is the Union of Writers of Artists of Cuba

You cannot be naive with Castroism. In Cuba there is no NGO linked to the Government that is free and even less so is the Union of Writers of Artists of Cuba, Uneac, one of the main creative focuses of the dictatorship. Uneac served the repression and lies from the day it was founded, for example with the cultural exchanges where the oppressor decides the conditions.

The novelist and writer Jose Antonio Albertini, who wrote his first novel in Cuba clandestinely, in addition to taking it off the Island in secret, was one of the first to denounce the Castro penetration at the Tampa Fair, describing the Uneac members as “excremental riflemen of the false narrative of Castroism.”

Albertini also says that the servitude to Castroism has tried to influence the Miami Book Fair. Also, we must not forget that the famous poet Ángel Cuadra, an intellectual committed to freedom and democracy, was excluded from those events by a political disagreement with a publishing house.

No person with common sense denies how vital it is for the future of Cuba that its children get to know each other and work together, but those who defend totalitarianism should not and cannot participate in that task because that system destroyed the Republic and puts the nation at risk.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Warning of Upsurge in Violations Against Intellectuals and Journalists in Cuba

Image shared on her networks by Alina Bárbara López Hernández, after several hours of detention by State Security / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 23 April 2024 — The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) denounced on Monday that, “in the midst of the poverty” that the Island is experiencing, the Cuban Government “dedicates enormous resources to increase repression against intellectuals, trade unionists and independent journalists,” pointing out several repressive acts committed by the political police in recent days. The organization, based in Madrid, mentioned the arrest of reporter Camila Acosta, a collaborator of CubaNet, this Sunday in Cárdenas, in the province of Matanzas, “when she was on her way to visit relatives of political prisoners. Four police cars participated” in the operation, orchestrated by State Security.

In the same province, last Thursday, Professor Alina Bárbara López Hernández “suffered bodily injuries due to police brutality during an arbitrary arrest.” The academic was detained for several hours at the Playa police station, and after returning home she denounced the mistreatment she suffered in a Facebook post.

“We warn of the upsurge in violations and call on the international democratic community to denounce these facts”

López Hernández reported that doctors diagnosed her with a “right humeral dislocation (sprain of the right shoulder)” and a “subluxation in the thumb of the left hand.”

Also in Matanzas, but this time in the municipality of Colón, the secretary general of the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba, Iván Hernández Carrillo, was summoned by the regime, “as part of the harassment campaign he suffers.” continue reading

Last week, in Camagüey, independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada was interrogated twice, explains the OCDH report. The former professor was ultimately fined 3,000 pesos “for violating Decree Law 370, a law used by the Havana regime to silence activists, journalists and citizens” after being accused “of publishing memes, comments and even “liking” other publications.”

Also, “the former political prisoner Luis Darién Reyes Romero was intimidated with a gun in the middle of the street in Old Havana by a repressor dressed in civilian clothes,” a fact classified by the OCDH as “serious.” The video circulated on social networks in which Reyes Romero showed the face and weapon of the State Security agent while chasing him.

“We warn of the upturn in violations and call on the international democratic community to denounce these facts. Likewise, we support the efforts of the Cuban Catholic Church to mediate the serious crisis that the country is experiencing,” the organization concludes.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cubans Without ‘Family in the Exterior’ Survive by Reselling on the Streets

Galiano Street, in Central Havana, has become a showcase for misery

An old woman has half a dozen disposable razors for sale, some that are also ’discarded’ / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 23 April 2024 — Cubans who emigrate to Miami have an expression for those who remain on the Island, those whom they support with their remittances: “Cubans with faith.” The word “faith” in Spanish is “fe,” which stands for “Family in the Exterior,” meaning relatives abroad. Eduardo, who left the country three years ago on the “route of the volcanoes” (through Nicaragua), doesn’t understand how “those who don’t have fe” can survive.

“Every week I have more and more acquaintances in Cuba asking me to send them money, because they don’t have children who can send them some. But I can’t handle everyone; I have children there too,” says this 40-year-old from Havana. “Distant relatives write my mom to ask for my help, as if I were a millionaire. I wish I could, but I know that’s not the solution.”

Aurora was an artist in the principal theaters of Cuba and always believed in the Revolution

If she ever dares to tell those relatives to stand in front of the Plaza de la Revolución and ask for “help” to save themselves, they call her an “anti-patriot” and a “Trumpista.” The suffering of relatives who couldn’t emigrate becomes dramatic in the case of the elderly.

Aurora was an artist in the principal theaters of Cuba and always believed in the Revolution. Today, widowed and alone, with a pension that does not reach 2,000 pesos and not a single family member who sends her money from abroad, she barely survives. Eating, although little, is not such a problem: there is always a neighbor who has a slightly more comfortable continue reading

life, either because of business “on the left” or from receiving remittances, and will help with a little rice or beans or both. The biggest problem is electricity. She can’t pay the new prices, so Aurora doesn’t even turn on the lights at night: one more risk to add to her 85 years and her reduced mobility.

On a step under the arches, an old man sells cigars and rubber parts for pots and coffee makers / 14ymedio

Like Aurora, hundreds of thousands of elderly Cubans – two and a half million over 60 years of age on the Island – are on the verge of extreme poverty. Those who don’t even have a roof over their heads sleep in the streets. Several of them take advantage of the busiest roads of the capital to resell a few items, always scarce, always of poor quality. One of the busiest is Galiano street, in Central Havana, a true showcase of misery.

An old woman had half a dozen disposable razors for sale this Tuesday, including those that are also discarded: few people can shave with those gadgets that they sell in state shops.

Later, on a step under the arches, another old man sells cigars and rubber parts for pots and coffee makers. Others offer sweets, liquid detergent, instant soft drinks or batteries.

“It’s not just that it’s not enough for them to live on, it’s that it’s useless for them,” said a woman who helps her 80-year-old mother as much as she can and who bought, out of charity, a battery pack on Galiano on Tuesday. “It’s just that 1,500 pesos of pension in this country is nothing. And look how hungry they are, how much need and sadness.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Japan Donates 20 Million Dollars to Cuba To Install a Photovoltaic Park on Isla de la Juventud

The Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, and the Japanese ambassador to Cuba, Kenji Hirata, at the inauguration of the facilities / Juventud Rebelde

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 27 April 2024 — The International Cooperation Agency of Japan (Jica) donated more than 20 million dollars to collaborate with Cuba in the assembly of solar photovoltaic parks in the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, local media reported on Saturday. The installation, inaugurated the day before by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, includes a system of fast-discharging lithium batteries that “allows to compensate for the fluctuations caused by the instability of photovoltaic generation,” according to the official newspaper Granma.

The project will reduce the use of fossil fuels in generation and improve the supply of electricity in that territory, according to the newspaper. With this, the electricity system in Isla de la Juventud would reach 20% of energy production with renewable sources, said the director of the state-owned Unión Eléctrica, Alfredo López.

The electricity system on the Isla de la Juventud would reach 20% of energy production with renewable sources

Marrero thanked Japan’s ambassador to Cuba, Hirata Kenji, and Jica’s representative, Ashida Tatsuya, for the donation. He also recognized the Cuban and Japanese engineers who work together on the construction site.

The Cuban Government aspires to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, which currently account for 95% of national energy production, and especially on the import of crude oil, due to the cost. continue reading

The national “energy transition” plan aims to have 37% of its energy mix come from renewable sources by 2030, although currently it is barely 5% and investments in this area are minimal.

At the beginning of March, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, announced two contracts with Chinese companies with which it is intended to contribute “gradually” more than 2,000 megawatts (MW) to the National Electricity System (SEN).

These agreements provide for the installation of three parks in each province, 92 in total, with which the Island intends to save 750 tons of imported fuel. The only drawback is the deadlines, between 2025 and 2028 while the population “endures” a deficit of 300 MW this Saturday.

The national energy transition plan aims for 37% of its mix to come from renewable sources by 2030

Also, Spain will also support the construction of a solar park in Cuba within the framework of the Global Gateway strategy of the European Union (EU). This project aims to provide energy for 8,500 households, generate savings of 84 million euros, replace 168,000 tons of fuel and avoid the emission of 721,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The poor state of Cuban thermoelectric plants, together with the lack of crude oil for generation, have meant that since the end of January, the daily rate of maximum energy deficit is between 20% and 45% of the country’s needs. Meanwhile, the Island appeals to an increase in the use of renewable energies as a solution to the energy crisis, but the progress is too slow compared to the needs of the population.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Ciego De Avila, Cuban Women Have Not Received a Single “Intimate” Item So Far This Year

Mathisa continues to violate the State’s order, says the official newspaper ’Invasor’ / Escambray

14ymedio, Havana, 27 April 2024 — A special report on the lack of sanitary pads in Ciego de Ávila, published this Saturday in Invasor, harshly criticizes the slow production of the industry on the Island, which asks for “calm,” while menstruation does not wait. Of the 100,000 women – according to 2022 data – who receive the product monthly in the province, not a single one obtained it this year, says the official newspaper, the only one that is allowed, within limits, to be critical of state management.

“At the end of April, the so-called ‘intimates’ still have not appeared in the pharmacies in at least half the country. Meanwhile, the recommended ‘calm’ means finding expensive alternatives – imported and national products – or very unpleasant ones: making pads out of recycled fabric, as in the 90s,” Invasor says sharply.

Other alternatives, such as the use of menstrual cups, are not too popular on the Island. “The menstrual cup is very comfortable and, although it is more expensive than other feminine hygiene products, the investment is quickly recovered when you stop buying pads all year round,” explains Marta, a woman from Avila who, however, knows that the product must not only overcome prejudices but also face practical situations of life in Cuba.

“The problem comes when you have to manipulate it in a public bathroom, where there is almost never water, soap or toilet paper”

“The problem comes when you have to manipulate it in a public bathroom, where there is almost never water, soap or toilet paper. Not to mention the lack of hygiene in some places,” she emphasizes. continue reading

“Using tampons,” she adds, “is not very popular because they are hard to find. For a while they were sold in MLC (freely convertible currency) stores and could be bought in buying and selling groups, but women prefer the pads, which they know better and are usually more affordable.”

Invasor also gives the price of pads in the informal market: for the low-quality Mariposa brand, a single package costs between 250 and 300 pesos, a “module” price with which a home delivery can even be requested, says the report. The rest of the national brands that are distributed in the central region of the Island cost 400 pesos and, if they are imported, up to 450 for no more than 12 pads, according to 14ymedio.

Invasor tried to communicate with Arthis, a company that, according to official reports, is funded by Cuban and Italian capital and has a production capacity of 20,000 daily packages of pads, diapers and dressings. They didn’t answer their phone.

Although the Arthis pads, sold under the Angélica brand, should, in theory, be marketed in pesos and in MLC – as the company said after its remodeling last December – “the offers consulted were all on e-commerce pages with payments from abroad,” says Invasor. The prices, in addition, “range between 900 and 1,000 pesos per pack of 36 pads.”

But, beyond the prices, it is the low availability that hits the women of the Island the hardest

But, beyond the prices, it is the low availability that hits the women of the Island the hardest. In a “short chronology” of the ups and downs of the industry, Invasor makes it clear that the situation has been going on for years. In 2016, the Sancti Spíritus Mathisa factory – in charge of supplying women from Matanzas to Camagüey – closed with a debt of three million units due to logistics problems. By 2021, the Avila authorities had produced only 60% of the expected pads, and the debt of the company that year, which was never settled, was four million units.

From then on, the logistical obstacles were joined by the lack of fuel and the shortage of raw materials in recent years, so Mathisa’s production has been intermittent. The company was barely able to resume its production two weeks ago – after stopping it in February – when it received the imported filler for the pads, and now they are trying to produce what they owe from the first quarter of 2024.

For the moment, the women of Avila will continue to wait for Mathisa, which “violates the State order again and again,” but it will be increasingly difficult for them to comply with the call to order of the regime. Invasor makes it clear that “the subsidized price of the humble pads in national currency should not be the only explanation” given by the officials.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Casa de las Americas Licks Its Wounds on Its 65th Anniversary and Longs for Its Influence in the Region

The top brass of the regime accompanies Abel Prieto on the anniversary of the institution / Casa de las Américas

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, April 27, 2024 — After 65 years operating as a kind of second ministry of culture, Casa de las Américas longs for the time when the institution was more powerful and influenced the cultural debates of the continent. On the eve of the anniversary, its president, cultural commissioner Abel Prieto, regrets the lack of “coherence” of the institution and assures that “the amount of crazy things full of lies” that are said about the Island’s regime do it “damage.”

Founded just four months after Fidel Castro’s arrival in Havana in 1959, Casa de las Américas emerged with a declared vocation: to take advantage of the intellectual enthusiasm caused by the “beards” to attract Latin American writers to the Island. The success was total. From promising young people like Ricardo Piglia to figures of the stature of Miguel Ángel Asturias, they passed through the institution or aspired to its literary prize.

Now, Prieto invokes the controversies that marked the first decades of Casa de las Américas, such as the emergence of the magazine Mundo Nuevo – emblem of the Latin American boom and under the direction, from 1966 to 1971, of the Uruguayan critic Emir Rodríguez Monegal – about which he states that it was “designed, built and launched as a counterweight to our magazine Casa de las Américas.” continue reading

Prieto invokes the controversies that marked the first decades of Casa de las Américas, such as the emergence of the magazine ’Mundo Nuevo’

The former Minister of Culture attributes to the United States multiple “traps”, “storms” and “manipulations” to sink the institution. He speaks with fury about the Rómulo Gallegos prize, saying “it is founded to oppose the Casa de las Américas prize,” although he does not mention that the regimes of Hugo Chávez and Castro ended up hijacking it. In 2000, invited to be on the jury for the Rómulo Gallegos prize, the novelist Roberto Bolaño denounced that the “chavista” methods of the organizers – who “designated” the politically convenient winner – were already identical to those of Havana in the 60s.

“The Casa always has an answer,” Granma celebrates in its interview with Prieto. The commissioner nods, but insists that everything in today’s world leans “to the right,” because “the Yankees have dedicated a lot of money” to preventing the cultural work of the Island. “At the center of all those controversies was the dispute over that area so important that is the intellectual field,” he says, and recalls that the institution always tried to be “at the center of those hurricanes.”

“At the center of all those controversies was the dispute over that so important area that is the intellectual field”

Prieto dedicated a long commentary to his predecessors, notably the founder of the Casa Haydée Santamaría, who “loved a lot, admired and lost” – he said, enigmatically, when announcing a book of tributes that he published this year – and whose suicide allowed Mariano Rodríguez to preside over the House until 1986. On that date, the poet Roberto Fernández Retamar assumed the position, until his death in 2019. After spending time as Raúl Castro’s “personal advisor,” and two long periods as Minister of Culture, Prieto took charge of the institution.

Boldly, the commissioner leaves his most daring statement for the end of his interview: “Many people say that the so-called Latin American boom, especially in the novel, has to do with the Cuban Revolution, firstly, and secondly, with the work of the Casa de las Américas.” Of those writers – whose progressive break with Havana was sonorous – however, he only mentions two: Gabriel García Márquez, Castro’s unconditional friend, and Julio Cortázar, whose criticisms of the Revolution were minimal and always in private correspondence.

In his personal account of the history of the institution, Prieto also did not mention the internal cultural controversies in which Casa de las Américas played a leading role. He did not allude to the fact that the magazine served to publish aggressive ideological libels – such as Calibán, from Retamar himself – against those who opposed the cultural vision of Havana and, on many occasions, personal attacks on authors that the regime disapproved of, such as Jorge Luis Borges.

Nor does it speak of the famous 1971 issue of the Casa magazine, in which the transcripts of the National Congress of Education and Culture appeared, with the authorities “locating” and “healing” homosexuals. Also appearing in the final pages of that issue, which served as a road map for what was known as the “Five Grey Years,” was the self-indictment of the poet Heberto Padilla, arrested by the State Security weeks before the publication.

The Casa building, next to the Havana Malecón, has long ceased to be a meeting and gathering center

The Casa building, next to the Havana Malecón, has long ceased to be a meeting and gathering center. Affected by multiple hurricanes and hard-pressed for a repair, the property ran out of steam as a cultural space in recent years. The most important event of the century that took place inside its walls was the one that happened in 2007 after the “Little War of Emails” was unleashed over the exaltation in the official media of former political commissioners of the “Five Grey Years.”

During weeks of exchanges by email, direct accusations of the Ministry of Culture and of Fidel Castro himself, dozens of intellectuals and artists lashed out against cultural policy on the Island. The official response was to convene a meeting at the Casa de las Américas to calm the tempers and stir up revolutionary spirits. The call left out the most critical figures in that controversy, and after it was over, the political police were brutal against the rebellious voices.

On its 65th birthday, the institution is still sheltered by the regime, whose top brass, headed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, accompanied Prieto in the anniversary ceremony. The Casa de las Américas Awards were also given out this week. The “Latin American unity” award is the only one that Cuba pays in dollars.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Overwhelmed By the Excess of Garbage, Las Tunas Trash Collectors Stop Working for the Cuban State

Many employees have been “frightened” by the situation of landfills in the province, and the increase in wages is not enough to avoid the stampede

14ymedio, Havana, 25 April 2024 — The garbage collectors hired by Communal Services in Las Tunas to pick up the trash with a horse and cart have protested again because of the low wages and the terrible conditions. “Few have stepped forward to face the work,” the authorities complain, alluding to the 252 who are still collecting garbage in the province. Their taxes were lowered at the end of last year when they demanded “to earn more and sweat less.”

Each cart operator is paid 40 pesos per cubic meter of garbage, and they pay 35% less in taxes. The carts can carry 15 cubic meters a load and make three trips a day, with which they earn, the authorities calculate, 1,800 pesos (some $5 US at the informal exchange rate) on a good day. “But they don’t even want to carry out that work,” complained Elser Prieto, the provincial deputy director of Comunales, in an interview given this Thursday to Periódico 26.

What explains the reluctance of the cart drivers to work with Comunales? Neither the official press nor the manager will risk a hypothesis, but the hygienic situation of Las Tunas, where waste has been accumulating for months, seems to be one of the keys, suggests Periódico 26. In addition, there is the lack of personnel – ideally, about 659 cart operators should be working – and the lack of tools for collection, plus the complication of maintaining a cart and horse, and the risk of disease. continue reading

Comunales should maintain two collection trucks and eight tractors, but it only has 2,000 liters of diesel per month

In the province of Las Tunas, Comunales should maintain two collection trucks and eight tractors, but it only has 2,000 liters of diesel per month and, of the tractors, only two work. Most of the collection must be taken care of by horse-drawn vehicles. According to the official newspaper, the province generates about 33,200 cubic meters of waste per month.

The saturation of garbage, the leaders admit, has frightened many cart drivers, who “have been vocal about the low salary they receive,” says Prieto, who claims to have “dialogued with them” without them listening. The leader mobilized local Hygiene and Epidemiology officials as part of a “strategy” that he did not reveal to “support” the collection, despite the “low number” of cart operators, whose stampede continues.

At the beginning of April, Periódico 26 described the overwhelming landscape of garbage in Las Tunas: a capital city “full of dumps,” municipalities in absolute “deterioration,” absence of a communal work system and “lack of sensitivity” of the leaders, who act only “when it is indicated by the higher authorities.”

They also regretted the “social indisciplines” such as throwing garbage in any corner, but they recognized that “many residents have no other option

They also regretted the “social indisciplines” such as throwing garbage in any corner, but they recognized that “many residents have no choice but to throw garbage in the dumpsters even when they are full.” “What else can they do if there is no fuel and no horse-and-cart operators?”

The newspaper also demanded a salary increase for the cart operators- “there is no other way” – a measure that should have been taken “many months ago.”

“A very serious problem, in addition, is the inefficient work system of the companies of Communal and Aqueduct Services to face the collection of waste and the discharge of sewer water, which runs through many streets of the capital city,” they summarized. “The deterioration of state equipment and the lack of fuel affected the capacity of the state entities in charge of garbage collection. The situation worsened because the self-employed who collected waste abandoned their positions, overwhelmed by the increase in operational costs.”

When the cart operators threatened to withdraw because garbage collection was not as profitable as they expected, Comunales raised an outcry

When the cart operators threatened to withdraw because garbage collection was not as profitable as they expected, Comunales raised an outcry, since using animals has been the only method they have found in the face of fuel shortages and the absence of special trucks.

Drivers prefer to work in the transport of passengers or cargo, a better paid and less cumbersome job. During the last tension with the cart operators, the testimony of one of them was eloquent: “I don’t need to spend all day covered in muck, with the risk of getting sick, because there are many things in the waste that can hurt you, and they check your papers over and over again. Now, hired privately, with a couple of good cart-loads a day or disposing of debris from a construction, I’m doing well.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Quisicuaba, or the ‘Revolutionary Calling’ To Look After the Poor

The official press celebrates with “hope” the work of the project in a new report on begging

In the project’s dining room this Friday, they served spaghetti without cheese / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 26 April 2024 — In the second part of a report on beggars in Cuba, in which the authorities recognize that the State is not able to deal with the increasing number of homeless people, the official press celebrates with “hope” the work of the Cabildo Quisicuaba project. Its director, Enrique Alemán, who mixes spiritualism and Afro-Cuban religions with activism in favor of the regime, says that he offers meals to more than 4,000 “wanderers” and “vulnerable” people a day in a dining room in Havana. If this is true, it would mean feeding three people per minute for 24 hours each day.

It’s not the first time that the Government has praised Quisicuaba’s “social” work. Every time the media is there, even the international media like Reuters, they offer the same numbers.

Nor is it explained where the food and the resources to serve them come from

What Alemán does not mention, in a video released by Cubadebate, is that a year ago his soup kitchen on Maloja Street, in Central Havana, had, according to an article from the Swiss Embassy in Cuba, half as many people as now. The increase in homeless people, beggars or “people with wandering behaviors,” as the regime calls them, is a reality that the Government can no longer hide. Nor is it explained where the food and the resources to serve them come from. continue reading

A resident of Nuevo Vedado who once asked Quisicuaba for help told 14ymedio that not everything is rosy in the project. “I live alone and I’m now 76 years old, so I talked to a social worker to see if I could get any help. He told me about Quisicuaba and managed the delivery of a lunch,” he recalls.

“When the food arrived, it was disgusting. My dogs didn’t even like it. I remember that they brought it to me in a bike-taxi, although I think that now they no longer send couriers and you have to go to Centro Havana. I never asked for it again,” he says.

The first part of the report on beggars in Cuba gave an account of the problem: 39% of those who live in the Centers for the Care of Wandering People have not reached the age of 60; 60% sold their home and do not have the resources to join society; 86% are men, 30% have some disability – including 25% with psychiatric disorders – and 31% “have high patterns of consumption of alcoholic beverages.”

In the face of the unrealizable proposal to pass the ball to the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) or other traditional organizations, Quisicuaba – with its double religious and “social” character – strives to ensure that the regime does not look foolish. A few years ago, the project inaugurated an “assisted living center” in San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa, in an abandoned rural high school.

Now, according to Alemán, 113 people reside there, and they hope to receive another 24 soon

Now, according to Alemán, 113 people reside there, and they hope to receive another 24 soon. All were previously taken care of in the Havana dining room, and after the opening of the “camp” they arrived at the facilities.

“Many of the patients who are here were alcoholics, for example, and therefore we try to create the family atmosphere that they do not have elsewhere. Here we have a simple regulation that is based on the person’s own will to want to get ahead. We give occupational therapy and work to make them feel important,” the director of the place, Yadelkis Hernández Morales, explains to Cubadebate.

Quisicuaba counts on the help that the Government and local administrations do not give to their own state shelters. “One of our fundamental premises lies in self-sufficiency, including our social dining room. To do this, we request idle land from agriculture, and we now produce coal for cooking food. In addition, we harvest bananas, sweet potatoes, malanga, pumpkin, cassava and beans. We also have an organoponic garden and a livestock module,” says Hernández. The contribution of the regime does not represent a great economic sacrifice, but it allows them to take part of the credit for the functioning of Quisicuaba.

The place also has a medical team, as well as staff from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. Likewise, the medicines shown in the Cubadebate audiovisual are imported, although Quisicuaba does not state where the funds come from, since it is a non-profit project.

Alpidio Alonso, also showed up and applauded the “deeply cultural work” of the project

The Cuban authorities, who support the initiative, often show their faces in the center and give promotion to Alemán, who has also highlighted the “revolutionary vocation” of Quisicuaba. This same Thursday, a retinue made up of Abel Prieto and other members of the jury of the Casa de las Américas Award – foreign intellectuals – arrived at the Havana headquarters. The Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, also showed up and applauded the “deeply cultural work” of the project.

Also, last December Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel toured the Quisicuaba facilities in San Antonio, to “learn how the Quisicuaba Project and several agencies of the Central State Administration, Cuban civil society organizations, the Party and the Government have worked together since 2020 to make this noble work a reality.”

Despite the Government’s attempt to whitewash its image, the homeless in Cuba are far from disappearing. A report by this newspaper reports the situation of residents of Havana who, like many on the Island, try to survive without the help of relatives abroad.

“Every week I get more and more acquaintances in Cuba asking me to send them money, because they don’t have children who send it to them. But I can’t deal with everyone; I have my children there too,” said a man from Havana living in Miami who doesn’t understand how those who don’t receive remittances can survive.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuba: Gradual Process Versus Voluntarism, a Matter of Methodology

As the results of their proposals have been the same, perhaps it makes no sense to discuss how they carried them out.

Fidel and Raúl Castro during the last session of the 6th Congress of the Communist Party / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 26 April 2024 — Any attempt to theorize about methodological issues in the way of governing is usually dismissed when the results are the same. That is one of the reasons why the differences in method to exercise power between Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl are barely mentioned.

If I had to define Fidel’s method, I would reduce it to a single sentence: “We will go forward no matter the cost.”

Raul’s contribution is evidenced in his attempt to achieve “a sustainable (and prosperous) socialism” and his insistence on advancing “sin prisa, pero sin pausa” — without haste, but without pause.

Four years ago Raúl met with a large group of leaders from all political and governmental levels, and he warned them that waste and improvisation had to be eliminated and that they had to “have their feet and ears glued to the ground.”

When in April 2018 Miguel Díaz-Canel assumed the position of president of the Council of State by appointment, Raúl Castro assured that this was part of a process of “gradual and orderly transfer.”

While it can be said that everything that happened in Cuba from 1959 to 2006 (especially the disasters) was the result of Fidel Castro’s indisputable voluntarism (everyone makes his own to-do list), it can also be said that the poor result of the reforms promoted by Raúl Castro from 2008 to the present is largely due to the slowness and lack of depth of their application.

As the results have been the same (I have my own list), it makes no sense to discuss the methodology.

But I make this observation:

If Fidel Castro had applied the nationalization of foreign companies in a gradual and orderly way, and his Revolutionary Offensive of 1968 would not have been decreed with the stroke of a pen but with his feet and ears on the ground…

If Raúl Castro, a chainsaw ready for action, had put an end to the inefficient socialist state enterprise and put the country’s economy into private hands, opening the doors to foreign investment…

The methdology wouldn’t have mattered.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Armed Seamen From Mexico Transfer the 28 Cubans Rescued by the Paradise Carnival Cruise Ship

Migration Agents used vans to transport the Cuban rafters rescued last Sunday by the Paradise Carnival cruise ship / X/@INAMI_mx

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico, April 26, 2024 — As if they were criminals, armed seamen guarded the transfer to Playa del Carmen of 28 Cubans, including a minor, last Tuesday. The migrants were handed over by the Paradise Carnival crew, who rescued them on Sunday 20 miles from the Island.

The cruise ship, which arrived at the San Miguel pier that same day, informed the captaincy of ports that among them was a group of rescued rafters. Agents of the National Institute of Migration took care of the Cubans and with the support of sailors took them in vans to the Winjet station, tourist transport ferries in Cozumel, to take them to the immigration station of Playa del Carmen.

A group of Cuban rafters guarded by armed seamen from Mexico at the exit of the San Miguel pier in Cozumel / Facebook/Esquema Cozumel

Darío Canché, who offers tourists diving tours, snorkeling and boat trips, told 14ymedio that before eight in the morning on Tuesday the seamen were already at the pier. “With these operations you think that there’s a shipment of drugs, but they took out several people carrying plastic bags. I asked if it was human trafficking and one of the people from Migration told me it was none of my business.” continue reading

What caught Canché’s attention is that their new footwear had no laces. “When they arrest you and before putting you in the cell they take everything away from you, even the laces, because they’re afraid you’ll kill yourself.”

At the immigration station they refused to give the list of Cuban names to this newspaper, under the argument that there was already an official statement. They also did not want to report why these people were delivered to Mexico and not to the island of Roatán (Honduras), where the cruise ship Paradise was moored last Monday.

Trajectory of the Paradise Carnival cruise ship/ Dayli Mail

The report indicates that the rafters are at the headquarters in Cancún, “where they were provided with care and accommodation while their situation is resolved.” The minor was “channeled” to the municipal System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF), in the Casa Filtro shelter, which will determine the protection measures and the plan of restitution of rights. Migrant defense attorney Jose Luis Pérez denounced Migration’s lack of transparency: “These Cubans have the right to regularize their stay in the country, but they will surely be isolated and threatened with deportation. It’s a way of scamming them.”

A member of the Beta Group revealed to 14ymedio that Mexico continues to deport Cubans, despite the fact that last October it announced that the process of “assisted calls” – as they call the expulsions – was paused until further notice. Last January, nine people from the Island were returned on a commercial flight. Last year, 774 Cuban migrants were returned.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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At Least 100 Cubans Remain Hospitalized for Lack of a Pacemaker, Says an NGO Related to the Regime

The mediCuba-Europa organization launched a campaign to buy 1,500 pacemakers and send them to the Island

The president of the NGO, Franco Cavalli (l) and Miguel Díaz-Canel (r) met in Havana in 2023 / Granma

14ymedio, Havana, 25 April 2024 — MediCuba-Europa, an NGO related to the Cuban Government, launched a campaign this Wednesday to raise funds for the purchase of pacemakers for patients on the Island. According to the organization, they need 1,500 pacemakers immediately, and at least 100 Cubans have to stay in hospitals because they do not have one. “Unfortunately, most pacemaker manufacturers refuse to market them and send them to Cuba. However, we have identified an Italian company willing to provide them at affordable prices: about 500 euros for a unicameral pacemaker,” he said in a statement, although he did not reveal the name of the company.

The NGO also explained that it is working with “an American solidarity group” to send between 300 and 400 pacemakers to the Island in the coming weeks. The donation of medicines, he added, is also necessary in the current economic conditions.

The organization, based in Switzerland, is composed of members from thirteen European states

The organization, based in Switzerland, is composed of members from thirteen European states (Germany, Sweden, Italy, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Finland, Norway, Spain and Austria). In addition, there are partner institutions from three other countries, the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Directed by the Swiss doctor Franco Cavalli, mediCuba-Europa maintains several projects with Cuban state institutions such as the financing of pediatric antitumor drugs for the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology of Havana, in which it planned to invest between 10,000 and 20,000 euros per year (10,725-21,451 dollars) since 2010, but in the first five years the figure amounted to 99,000 euros (106,184 dollars). According to the project’s report, the execution period will last “until the blockade* ends.” continue reading

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Island, mediCuba-Europa promoted another campaign to finance the purchase of 250 pulmonary ventilators, and in 2021 delivered $600,000 for the purchase of syringes and needles. The NGO also announced that it planned to support the development of Cuban vaccines against the virus, although it is not known if that proposal materialized.

In addition to maintaining direct collaboration with the Cuban Government, Cavalli is a strong advocate of the regime on the international stage and has denounced the United States embargo* as the main cause of Cubans having poor access to healthcare.

The shortage of medical supplies on the Island has become a chronic problem. In mid-April, the official press announced that enalapril – one of the most prescribed drugs on the Island and the most scarce – was returning to the pharmacies of Ciego de Ávila after missing for several weeks. However, the authorities explained that “there is only availability to cover 70% of the dose.”

The shortage of medical supplies on the Island has become a chronic problem

The lack of enalapril is not the only one – far from it. Of the 603 products on the so-called province card – 197 imported and 401 of domestic production, the authorities said, although they do not add up – on average 226 have been missing. In addition, 471 had zero or low coverage in the most recent 15 and 30 days.

The worst situation occurred in 34 of the 84 products of the control card: contraceptives, tranquilizers (out of 23, 16 were missing) and antibiotics (out of 24, 17 were missing); all this as a consequence, they said, of the “effects of the current economic crisis and the resurgence of the United States blockade against Cuba,” which brought the shortage to “historic levels.”

The export of Cuban doctors on “missions” to different countries, however, continues to bring great monetary benefits for the regime, which does not reinvest those funds in Public Health. Last February, for example, 89 health workers arrived in Honduras to help in the hospital network. The hiring, by the Government of Xiomara Castro, violates the country’s Constitution, according to Honduran doctors.

*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 in 1962 the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba, 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 the same year in February, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Government Unearths a Case of Illegal Slaughter of Livestock To Warn Farmers

The three involved in the robbery, which occurred in 2022, were sentenced to six and nine years in prison

The robbery occurred on 5 September 2022, in the Gratitude cooperative of the Avila municipality of Majagua / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, April 25, 2024 — The official press unearthed, this Wednesday, the case of theft of two horses and two oxen in Ciego de Ávila in 2022, perpetrated by three farmers living in Sancti Spíritus. The news, which announced the penalty of nine and six years in prison for those involved, coincides with the process of livestock and land control carried out by the Government from this March until the month of May.

According to the newspaper Escambray, the three men, 40, 41 and 27 years old, who “had the mission of producing and protecting the land (…) in the area of La Teresita, near Majagua, disrupted the honorable profession by the illegal slaughter of livestock that belonged to others.” In addition, it highlights, two of them have “long criminal records,” which include several years in prison and fines. The third accused, although he has no criminal record, “maintains social misconduct,” the newspaper argues.

The robbery occurred on 5 September 2022, in the Gratitude cooperative of the municipality of Majagua in Avila, where those involved cut the fence and took the animals, three of them from the company and one owned by a farmer. These were slaughtered and sold at 100 pesos per pound of meat. continue reading

The animals were slaughtered and sold at 100 pesos per pound of meat

“During the investigative process, the Police carried out searches in the homes of the three defendants and found meat and instruments used in the illegal slaughter, plus a scale used in the sale. With this evidence, they proceeded to arrest said citizens,” the newspaper summarizes.

Two years after the crime, two of the defendants were sentenced to nine years in prison and the other to six years, for theft and illegal slaughter of livestock and sale of the meat. They must also jointly compensate those harmed, the newspaper added.

Another food-related crime occurred recently in Las Tunas, where the Ministry of the Interior seized six tons of potatoes from a private company in the main municipality. According to the official press, the authorities noted the “illegality of the invoices” of the business, so the product was withdrawn and an investigation initiated.

An agent of the ministry, Ender Simón Gutiérrez, explained to the local newspaper Periódico 26 that, “in reviewing the documentation of the alleged legal purchase, it did not justify the origin of the volume of the product.”

The potatoes had been acquired by the private company in the province of Artemisa and were sold in the city of Las Tunas at 80 pesos per pound, a price that, the newspaper says, was not authorized either. In the ration stores of the province, the price of one pound of potatoes is 11 pesos, while in the state markets leased to private individuals it is 70 pesos.

The government company Acopio, where the tubers were delivered, distributed the tons between the Ernesto Guevara hospitals, the pediatric Mártires de Las Tunas and the Clodomira Acosta psychiatric hospital, in addition to the Carlos Font nursing home, the Calixto Sarduy medical center and two children’s homes without government subsidies. These centers, adds Periódico 26, with praise for the agents who “watch over the legality,” “now have a good amount of that product to reinforce the feeding of patients, the elderly and children.”

The prosecution of crimes related to food production in the country has intensified in recent months, and the Government’s inability to import food has become evident. The control of the farmers, in which a “hard hand” was promised, is one of the strategies to alleviate the crisis. Despite the farmers’ discomfort, quantities of “diverted” products have been returned to the State.

The prosecution of the authorities for crimes related to food production in the country has intensified

An article published on April 19 in Periódico 26 revealed that, in Las Tunas alone, when only a fifth of the registration had been completed, the Ministry of Agriculture managed to add to the state inventory 30,170 liters of milk, 27 tons of beef and 142 tons of agricultural products that were not being delivered to the State.

“The first data reveal a negative difference between the livestock counts in the records and the one that really exists in the pastures, without documents that appropriately support the reasons for that lack,” the media said at the time. In addition, there are cases of “delayed conversions, improperly registered births, unidentified animals and illegal sales.”

History repeats itself in Artemis, where the authorities found all kinds of misdeeds: animals without a brand or ear tag, with unreported changes of category, outside the farm without authorization and without documents have been just some of the 9,300 violations counted.

State pressure on farmers and landowners, added to the fear of being fined or locked up, has forced them to attend en masse to the livestock control records and to register the animals that have died or were raised illegally. However, the number of violations is still remarkable. In just a month and a half of “controls” in the province, the authorities have added to the State plan 2,600 liters of milk that the farmers did not deliver to the official channels, according to El Artemiseño.

Last February, the theft of 133 tons of frozen chicken from the Food Marketing Company of Havana was also news, which ended with 30 defendants, 11 of them in pretrial detention.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Emigration of Its Militants Is a Blow to the Communist Party of Cuba

Party meetings, public events and morning workplace meetings have become a roll call to count those absent

The speed with which some Cubans change the PCC red card for residence in the ’yuma’ (US), never ceases to surprise / Cadeca

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 25 April 2024 — Even opportunism crumbles. Wearing the ideological mask in Cuba meant, for decades, obtaining revenues and benefits, but for some time now it seems to cost more than what it brings in. This morning I learned from a former official, linked to propaganda in the official media, that she is diligently waiting for her humanitarian parole to be approved to move to the United States. Instead of rejection or annoyance, the news has provoked congratulations among her former colleagues in the core of the Communist Party.

“You’re incredibly lucky, you’re leaving!” another militant, already retired and lacking anyone to claim him on the “other side of the pond,” told her with a touch of envy. According to what the future migrant has assured her friends, she will alternate her life between Miami and Havana, but everyone senses that it is a trip with no real return. “In a few years, for sure, she will publish on Facebook the photo with the flag of the little stars next to an image of the Statue of Liberty, after becoming nationalized,” predicts the pensioner.

Although the phenomenon has been quite common in recent years, the speed with which some Cubans exchange the PCC red card for residence in the Yuma is still surprising. With the same enthusiasm that, util recently, they used to get ready to participate in official events, they pack their suitcase and go to the airport. The speed with which they shed the skin of the simulator is causing a schism in the ranks of those who still say they support the system. continue reading

Party meetings, public events and the morning workplace meetings have become a roll call to count those absent and calculate how many more will emigrate. They look into each other’s eyes, weigh every word each other says, look for signs that they are waiting for a visa or a ticket. But the potential migrants do not give up. Trained in hiding their criticism of the regime and keeping quiet about any discrepancies, they guard their departure until the last minute.

From the plane window, up there, they will smile with relief. Down here, their cronies in the cause will also do the same. They know that with each acolyte who leaves, loyalty fades, masks crack, the system falls apart.

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The Governor of Cienfuegos Resigns ‘Upon Recognizing Mistakes Made in the Exercise of His Responsibility’

Alexandre Corona joins the long list of senior Cuban officials who leave their duties in 2024, since the dismissal of Alejandro Gil Fernández as Minister of Economy

Alexandre Corona Quintero during an interview with the official newspaper 5 de Septiembre / 5 de Septiembre

14ymedio, Madrid, 24 April 2024 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel approved on Wednesday the dismissal of the governor of Cienfuegos, Alexandre Corona, who requested his resignation “upon recognizing mistakes made in the exercise of his responsibility.” According to a brief statement made public by the official press, which does not detail what the mistakes are, he will be replaced until a new governor is elected by Yolexis Rodríguez Armada, who was up to now a provincial deputy governor.

It is a case, therefore, different from the recent “movements of cadres,” such as the governors of Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas, Villa Clara and Ciego de Ávila. All of them were “liberated” from their posts to perform “new tasks,” according to the prose used by the regime in these circumstances. In recent weeks, the president of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), a union organization in the orbit of the Communist Party of Cuba, was also replaced.

Corona joins, of course, the long list of senior Cuban officials who leave their duties in 2024, since the dismissal of Alejandro Gil Fernández as Minister of Economy. continue reading

The expression used to communicate Corona’s departure is very similar to the one used when reporting the arrest of Gil Fernández, who is still under “rigorous investigation”

In fact, the expression used to communicate the departure of Corona is very similar to the one used when reporting the arrest of Gil Fernández, who is still under “rigorous investigation” today for “serious mistakes made in the performance of his duties.”

From her home in the Canary Islands, María Victoria Gil told 14ymedio a month ago that her brother, Gil Fernández, the former Minister of Economy and right-hand man of Miguel Díaz-Canel, was being held incommunicado in “some detention house of the Ministry of the Interior.”

President Díaz-Canel has reiterated in recent months the Government’s “zero tolerance” for economic crimes, and the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, quoted in official media, has asked for “a tougher hand” in the face of “weakness, the lack of urgency and poor control” in the state sector.

Last March, the YouTube channel Molinos por la Libertad denounced Alexandre Corona for leading a corruption plot that also involved “heads of the Ministry of the Interior, provincial and military counterintelligence leaders” and even “the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero and Díaz-Canel himself.”

According to this video, the governor, a former Ministry of Interior intelligence officer expelled for corruption in 1998, owned several small businesses, such as ConstruSur, which diverted resources that he himself authorized to build social housing. However, the Government never responded to these accusations.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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