He did not reveal which country he is in and explained that the authorities took him directly to the plane
Jorge Cervantes García, former member of Unpacu and coordinator of Cuba Primero / Facebook
14ymedio, Madrid, September 12, 2024 — The Cuban regime forced Cuban activist and former member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), Jorge Cervantes García, into exile last Tuesday. As the opponent himself revealed on social networks, the authorities gave him a choice between “banishment and prison” and, after deciding to leave the country, led him directly “to the stairs of the plane.”
In a video shared on social networks, the activist did not reveal which country he’s in but said that, although he consulted with people close to him about his decision to go into exile, it was impossible for him to communicate with his family during his transfer from Santiago de Cuba to Havana and before boarding the plane.
As for the leader of the Unpacu, José Daniel Ferrer, this Thursday the European Parliament will vote on a resolution to call for the release of the activists and all the Island’s political prisoners. continue reading
Cubalex announced the granting of an extracriminal license to political prisoner Carlos Manuel Pupo Rodríguez
For its part, the Cubalex platform announced the granting of an extracriminal license to the political prisoner Carlos Manuel Pupo Rodríguez, due to “his critical state of health.” As the organization explained on the social network X, the opponent suffered an ischemia that had an impact on the right side of his body. It also reported that this Wednesday his condition would be evaluated to determine if he would be discharged.
Pupo is not the only prisoner of conscience who, due to his health – which has deteriorated in prison – has obtained an extracriminal license. Last May, Lisdani Rodríguez, one of the two sisters from Placetas, Villa Clara, arrested after demonstrating on 11 July 2021 (11J), was released from prison after being diagnosed with placenta previa – a condition that can cause intense bleeding – during her pregnancy.
Rodríguez was granted a one-year leave after her family and several organizations denounced the terrible conditions of the Guamajal women’s prison, in Santa Clara, to attend to a pregnant woman. The young woman had also noticed the deterioration of her health, and her mother accused the prison authorities of pressuring Rodríguez to abort and to hide sensitive medical data. The young woman gave birth on September 6th.
This Tuesday the Change.org platform created a campaign to call for the release of another Cuban political prisoner: Lizandra Góngora Espinosa, a mother of five who was sentenced to 14 years in prison after participating in the protests of 11 July 2021 (11J), in Güira de Melena, Artemisa.
The Change.org platform created a campaign to ask for the release of political prisoner Lizandra Góngora Espinosa
“The Cuban authorities falsely accused her of sabotage, robbery with force and public disorder, crimes that she did not commit. Lizandra is a member of the Republican Party of Cuba, an opposition organization to the regime, which makes her the target of reprisals by the Cuban government,” says the statement from Change.org, which recalls the numerous occasions in which the prisoner has had her health endangered in prison.
“Lizandra’s children are also suffering the consequences of their mother’s imprisonment. They are bullied at school because of their mother’s political position. In addition, Lizandra’s husband, Ángel Delgado, has received warning letters from the authorities, threatening to take custody of the children if they continue to miss classes to visit their mother in prison,” the organization adds.
This Wednesday, Cubalex reported that at least 26 prisoners have died in the custody of the Cuban State during the first half of 2024. Among the deaths documented by the NGO are those of Luis Ángel Benítez Hernández, Luis Yasser Mesa Brito and Daniel Herrera, who “were subjected to aggression by the police before dying,” says the platform.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Sergei Shoigu announces Moscow’s intention to increase cooperation in security, special services and police departments
Sergei Shoigu in a file photo with Vladimir Putin / EFE
EFE (via 14ymedio), Moscow, 10 September 2024 — Russia plans to grant new lines of credit to Cuba to help Havana “overcome the serious consequences of the US blockade*,” said the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, on Tuesday.
“Russia will take additional measures to support Havana; in particular, with the granting of new lines of credit,” Shoigu said during a meeting with Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez in St. Petersburg.
Shoigú, former Russian Minister of Defense, added that Cuba is one of Russia’s closest allies in Latin America, and relations between the two countries have survived “the test of time.”
“We are willing to increase cooperation within the framework of security councils, special services and police departments. We are paying particular attention to commercial, economic and investment cooperation,” he emphasized.
He also trusted that, with the help of Russia, Havana will overcome the “serious” consequences of the “economic blockade” imposed by the United States. continue reading
“We are paying particular attention to commercial, economic and investment cooperation”
Last June, a detachment of the Russian Navy arrived on the Island with a modern frigate and a nuclear-powered submarine, which generated great expectation inside and outside the country.
Political, military and economic relations between Moscow and Havana have deepened qualitatively in recent years.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel was in Moscow at the beginning of May, his second official visit in less than two years.
Subsequently, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas made trips to the Slavic country.
In the economic plan between the two countries, initiatives stand out, ranging from Russian donations to advisory missions on reforms, to the opening of a line of credit for the Island to buy wheat, oil and fertilizers in Russia.
The trips of senior military officials are also frequent, but absolutely opaque.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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.
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The foreign minister says that without the “blockade” the GDP would have grown by 8% instead of falling by 1.9% in 2023
Chicken imported from the US is one of the most purchased products on the Island, due to its exemption from the embargo / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Madrid, 13 September 2024 — The wear and tear of the speech about the “blockade”* is noticeable in Cuba. Few would have expected a few years ago that the official press would tolerate the appearance of comments that question the regime’s argument in this regard, but it is happening. An article in Cubadebate includes the press conference of the foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, presenting to the international media the report that the Island prepares for its traditional resolution before the General Assembly of the United Nations on the economic consequences of the US embargo.
“Sadly we don’t produce. That’s the sad reality. The blockade affects us, but the grass-filled fields are our responsibility,” says a user. Early this Friday there were only eleven comments on the report, but there were questions in several of them. “Without a doubt, the blockade has an influence on the critical state of our economy, but, personally, I often don’t have the arguments to back that up,” writes a reader who asks for precise examples – with figures and sources – from each ministry.
Another, more incredulous, asks for seriousness in the arguments: “I don’t understand how the cost can exceed the profit (minus expenses) of the country. The cost can be a percent of income but never double or triple. The calculation of the cost cannot be based on assumptions because it’s no longer credible.” continue reading
“Without a doubt, the blockade has an influence on the critical state of our economy, but, personally, I often don’t have the arguments to back that up”
But it’s not an isolated case. In addition to this report, the document itself was released this Thursday, in a preview, for download. The first comment is devastating for a speech set in stone for more than 60 years. “I don’t think there is a blockade; rather, we have to eliminate corruption, usury, influence peddling and tax evasion. Stop complaining,” it says. This message opens another debate, when a user accuses the author of being a “blockade denier” and reminds him that all the countries of the United Nations General Assembly – except the United States and Israel – have condemned it year after year for decades.
“What is voted on in the United Nations Assembly is the end of the embargo measures, not a blockade. Ergo, what the UN and the international community recognize is an embargo, not a blockade. They are different categories and have different meanings,” argues a third.
In view of that vote and the November elections in the United States, Rodríguez said on Thursday that Washington’s sanctions against the Island constitute an “economic war” of a “genocidal” nature and urged the US president, Democrat Joe Biden, to lift them “immediately.”
According to the official estimate, the impact between March 2023 and February of this year amounts to 5.057 billion dollars, 189.8 million dollars more than a year ago. Havana says that in more than 60 years of sanctions, the impact exceeds 164.141 billion dollars at current prices.
The regime argues that, without US sanctions, the Island would have achieved a growth “at current prices” of 8% in 2023, in contrast to the 1.9% drop with which it closed last year, according to official figures.
The regime argues that, without US sanctions, the Island would have achieved a growth “at current prices” of 8%
According to the foreign minister, the consequences can be perceived in the daily lives of Cubans “like never before” in “many facets of daily life.” He cited blackouts, the shortage of food, medicines and fuel, the lack of transport, high inflation and the “deterioration of other basic services.”
For Rodríguez, US sanctions are the “fundamental and determining” factor in the serious crisis that the country has been suffering for four years, although, surprisingly, he also recognized that the “failures in macroeconomic management” have an influence.
“Not all difficulties are due to the blockade; there are also structural problems, difficulties in economic management, but the fundamental and determining factor is the extreme and unprecedented sharpening and hardening of the blockade since 2019,” he said.
In addition, he stressed that US sanctions – the “most complete and prolonged” system of measures – have led the Island to a situation of a”war economy,” not in “propagandistic” terms but in “technical terms.”
Rodríguez, who reproached Biden for not lifting the measures introduced by his predecessor, Donald Trump, asked the president to act. “He could do it tomorrow if he wanted to,” he said, forgetting that the bulk of the rules depend on the US Congress. The foreign minister asked the US president to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, something for which he does have “all the executive capabilities.”
Rodríguez, asked about the upcoming US elections, avoided taking a position and indicated that he is indifferent, because the elimination of the embargo “must be unilateral, unconditional, complete and immediate.”
The exemptions from the embargo allow Cuba to buy food and medicine from the US, in addition to, currently, vehicles. According to the most recent report of the US-Cuba Economic and Trade Council, imports of food and agricultural products exceeded 31 million dollars in July alone, and cars reached 36 million. Despite the obstacles of the embargo, the Island has the support of allies that supply it with goods that the United States cannot, mainly China and Russia.
*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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The decision was communicated to her personally during a meeting at the Provincial Committee of the organization in Matanzas.
López was part of the institution as an essayist on historical and social issues / Alina Bárbara López
14ymedio, Havana, 13 September 2024 — The Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) expelled historian Alina Bárbara López on Thursday, a sanction – insignificant, in her opinion – in which the intellectual sees the hand of State Security. The reasons: criticizing the “high leadership of the Revolution,” “showing solidarity with the July 11 [11J] movement” and violating the organization’s statutes.
According to López, the decision was communicated to her personally during a meeting at the Provincial Committee of UNEAC in Matanzas. From the mouths of the authorities present – one from each branch of the organization, in addition to the president – López was informed that, according to article 40 of the regulations, the entity had sufficient arguments for her “separation.” Among them, having offended Julio César Pérez, a Communist Party official who is also vice president of the Writers Association.
In a State Security profile – enabled for “cybercombat,” López emphasizes – Pérez claimed that the historian “had lost her shame and was violating the peace in the city.” Her response to this accusation, she maintains, was not an insult but a reply with “ethical stature.” “The leadership does not consider that I was the one who was offended,” she laments.
No document was given to support the decision, a mere “verbal communication” from the leaders
Although the organization told López that its decision was final, the intellectual said that she did not intend to question a measure that, she believes, “seems to be dictated more by State Security agents than by writers and artists.” However, she emphasizes that the decision did not adhere to the law and its arguments are not solid. continue reading
In the first place, she says, she was not given any document supporting the decision, but rather a mere “verbal communication” from the leaders. They also refused to share the content of the text to her and only after much insistence did they read the document to her again. “The intention of the president of the UNEAC was that I listen and, after finishing the reading, they concluded the meeting because they ‘did not want to debate’. They obviously know very little about me. I did not accept and imposed an exchange that they did not want where they had to listen to my point of view,” she says.
During her response, she clarified that on 11J there was a social outburst “that was not structured,” so there could be no talk of support or leadership on her part. She admitted that she has analyzed the causes of the protests in several articles and has called for the release of the prisoners. “It seems unfair to me that people who only protested by shouting slogans or recording videos of what happened are serving long prison sentences. I never justified the acts of vandalism, but this was not the general tone of what happened on 11J,” she argued.
During her response, she clarified that on 11J there was a social outburst “that was not structured”
Regarding the accusations of acts “against the Revolution” – “understood as the Government” – López asked for clarification, since she is not part of any opposition party or organization. “I have never appealed to violence and I am in favor of national dialogue, I have never called on anyone to follow me. I exercise constitutional rights established in article 56 of the Law of Laws: freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration,” she explains.
The leaders of the UNEAC were unable to refute her arguments, she says, and, hesitantly, stuck to the content of the text. They appealed to the organization’s regulations, but López reminded them that these statutes were not above the Constitution of the Republic, and that therefore they were committing an illegality.
She continued that she joined UNEAC as an essayist on historical and social issues, so technically it is her duty to assess “the manner and results of governmental and political management,” an intellectual activity that the authorities should not penalize.
Regarding her alleged violations of the Penal Code – another of the accusations – López said that “neither State Security nor the investigators and judges had ever claimed that the legal farce that led to my conviction for disobedience was a ‘serious crime’, in fact I received a fine as a sanction and I have no criminal record.” Nor has the charge for the “crime of attack” been brought, which is in the investigation phase.
López dedicated a final reflection to the Uneac, an entity “worse than the entire national repressive apparatus” for making decisions without even arguing them
López dedicated a final reflection to UNEAC, an entity “worse than the entire national repressive apparatus” for making decisions without even justifying them from a legal point of view. “What sense does it make for an intellectual organization that has to obey the unalterable statutes of a political organization – the Communist Party – to which not all of its members belong?” she said
Personally and as a member of the organization, López had several disagreements during meetings in which she tried to be critical. “Several months ago,” she says, “when I tried to address this issue at the Assembly of the Literature Association, they almost didn’t let me do so on the grounds that UNEAC is not the place to address political issues… When I left, I told them that I felt ashamed for them. The others lowered their heads and did not respond. Only the president of UNEAC said that he felt no shame at all. ‘You must have lost it,’ were my last words.”
UNEAC, founded in 1961 after a time of high political tension – the censorship of the documentary PM and the so-called Words to the Intellectuals, Fidel Castro’s commandments for culture – has used the expulsion and sanctions of its members as a political tool since its origins. One of the most notorious cases, in 1967, was that of Guillermo Cabrera Infante. More recently, UNEAC has removed from its ranks dissident writers such as Rafael Vilches and Pedro Armando Junco.
Chaired today by Villa Clara official Luis Morlote, the organization has strengthened its ideological control and has affirmed, through statements and declarations, its non-negotiable loyalty to the regime.
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The deterioration of Cuban reality, at this time, “is more serious than ever,” says the writer
Leonardo Padura will release an “improved” edition of ‘The Man Who Loved Dogs’ / EFE
EFE (via 14ymedio), Río de Janeiro, 13 September 2024 — Cuban writer Leonardo Padura, winner of the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, believes that Cuba is currently experiencing the worst crisis in its history, to the point that one million people, 10% of the population, have left the country in the last three years.
“The option remaining to people is to leave. And it is not those who want to leave, but those who can, because an exit via Nicaragua and the coyotes costs around 10,000 dollars. And more than a million people have left, so you can imagine the levels of hopelessness and desperation that many people feel,” said Padura in an interview with EFE.
The author said that, like detective Mario Conde, his alter ego and the protagonist of several of his novels, he has become more pessimistic about Cuban reality in the nearly 35 years since he wrote his first detective novel.
“We have both grown older, Conde and I. And we have seen a process of deterioration of Cuban reality, which is now more serious than ever, even more serious than in that Special Period when everything was lacking (with the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the aid it had sent to the Island),” he said. continue reading
You can imagine the levels of hopelessness and desperation that many people have
Padura, who visited Rio de Janeiro this week at the invitation of the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center to participate in one of the Reading Club sessions, said that the deterioration of the situation in Cuba in recent years has extended to issues that seemed to have been resolved many years ago.
“I think people see things very pessimistically. They are very tired, very exhausted. Right now, in recent days in Havana, there are serious problems with garbage collection, which causes infections and epidemics,” he warned.
He added that Cuba is also currently facing problems with water distribution, electricity supply, food supply and “brutal” inflation.
“Just to give you an idea, imagine that my mother receives my father’s retirement pension, which is 1,800 pesos (about 75 dollars), and a carton of 30 eggs costs 3,000 pesos, if you can get one. For two months now, the ration card has not included the little packet of coffee they used to give you. How can a 96-year-old person live on 1,800 pesos?” he asked.
In his opinion, while five years ago people had a visa to go to the United States, traveled, spent a few days and returned, in the last three years, and “with no other option but to leave,” more than 10% of the population left.
I believe that a society without hope has a hard time offering you what you need as an individual
According to the author of The Man Who Loved Dogs, among other works, although there are still Cubans who raise the flag and recite slogans, the vast majority, “or at least” the people around him, see reality from the perspective that Conde sees it now, who is more pessimistic than ever.
“And that speaks of a deterioration, of a loss of confidence, of a lack of hope. And I believe that a society without hope has a hard time offering you what you need as an individual. And that is what is happening in Cuba and I have learned it, as has Conde,” he said.
According to Padura, his generation, which was 35 years old in 1989 and went to university in large numbers, had many real benefits, including access to all the writers who were in fashion.
He affirmed that, personally, many things have changed in his life since he published his first novels, when he was still working as a journalist and before becoming, in 1996, the first Cuban recognized by the regime as an independent writer.
Padura will launch a new book of essays on his relations with Havana on October 2 in Spain
“I was lucky that my third novel won the Café Gijón prize in Spain and that the publishing house Tusquest decided to publish it. I am published in 31 languages, which shows the magnificent effort of promoting my work,” he said.
With respect to his work, on October 2 Padura will launch in Spain a new book of essays about his relations with Havana and an “improved” edition of The Man Who Liked Dogs.
Regarding the book of essays, he explained that it is “a historical and physical, but also sentimental journey through the city, from the outskirts, where I was born and from where I approached it, I got to know it and then I wrote it.”
He said the book also includes a series of fragments from his novels in which the events that occurred in Havana were brought to literature, as well as a series of articles and reports that he has published over many years about the city.
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The bread roll will go from 80 to 60 grams and its price will go from one peso to 75 centavos.
This is not the first time that the authorities have reduced the weight of food. / Cubadebate
14ymedio, Havana, 13 September 2024 — With just a few hours’ notice, the Cuban government announced that starting this Friday the weight of the bread delivered as part of the basic basket will be 60 grams instead of the regular 80 grams. The reason, according to the authorities, is the pronounced shortage of flour for its production due – as they always claim – to the “intensification of the blockade imposed by the United States Government.”
The smaller size is added to the poor quality of the so-called bread from the store – mainly due to the addition of “extenders” to the flour to make it last longer – which Cubans constantly complain about. For their part, the directors of the Ministry of the Food Industry considered that it is better to “guarantee that the population can acquire the daily ration of bread, corresponding to a lower weight and not realize effects like those that occurred a few months ago.”
As long as the new weight is maintained, each unit of bread will cost 75 centavos instead of one peso, and priority will be given to hospitals and schools, the authorities added.
According to a note published on Cubadebate, the directors of the Food Industry explained that the country has “a volume of flour that could provide continuity” to the production of bread. However, they did not clarify the extent of these reserves and limited themselves to mentioning that the “situation” could last “a few days.” To cover the production of continue reading
standard bread, the Island requires about 700 metric tons of flour daily – mostly imported – about 21,000 tons per month, according to official data.
The directors of the Food Industry explained that the country has “a volume of flour that could give continuity” to bread production
The authorities, who reported that the Cuban Bread Chain will continue to produce bread for free (unrationed) sale with the raw materials it buys from SMSEs, washed their hands of the matter by assuring that the flour and other raw materials acquired by the State for the production of bread are not “comparable with the volume of flour imported by private producers who, in the first half of the year alone, brought in a small part of what is required by the Food Industry to guarantee this service.”
Once again, the information ended with the mantra that the Government repeats every time that regulated bread becomes the focus of public debate: “a reduction in weight does not, under any circumstances, imply a reduction in the quality of that product.” What they do not quite recognize is that the bread from the bodega (ration store) has never had optimal quality. On the contrary, it is the object of complaints and mockery for its hardness, the short time it stays fresh, its texture and even its flavor.
This is not the first time that the State has reduced the size of the bread rolls due to the shortage of flour. Exactly one year ago, in September 2023, the country tightened its belt again and reduced the weight from 80 grams to 50 grams in Ciego de Ávila, even less than now, although this time the measure affects the entire country. The reason given then was the same as that repeated by the authorities on Thursday: “The lack of financial resources and the persecution of the payment methods used” by the United States.
At that time, the authorities did not set a deadline for the production of lighter-weight breads, but instead said that as the country managed to import flour, the pace of production would recover.
At that time, the authorities did not set a deadline for the production of lighter-weight breads
This year, bread has also been in short supply in Cuba. At the end of February and beginning of March, even hotels , which are prime locations when it comes to food, frequently experienced shortages of bread and other products made from flour. Donations of 25,000 tons of this raw material from the Kremlin did not help alleviate the shortage.
Around the same time, the sale of tons of flour on social media caught the attention of Cubans, who pointed out to the government its inability to import the product while SMSEs sold it by the sack in their stores or on websites such as Revolico.
Months later, in May, the bread was once again the subject of debate over its quality. According to many residents in Las Tunas, the food had a sandy texture that made it crumble in the mouth. Although the authorities then acknowledged that this was due to the fact that the flour had a high level of “impurities,” they assured that it was “fit for consumption.”
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The official magazine ’Alma Mater’ analyzes the reasons for the collapse, from “the summit to the crisis”
Cuba no longer has the same level of classification, and officialdom considers “the number of athletes under other flags” a shame / Jit
14ymedio, Havana, 23 August 2024 — The equation that explains the failure of Cuban sport is simple: there is no “muscle” without money, and Cuba does not have – or at least that is the official version – the money they need to invest in the preparation of its athletes. They have to be sent to other countries to train, and very few resist the temptation to escape. The few who return do so because they prefer to escape in Paris rather than in Nicaragua or the Dominican Republic.
Alma Mater, the university magazine that has become lethargic since the defenestration of its director, dares to addresses a thorny topic. In a text that describes the path of Cuban sport “from the summit to the crisis,” the official publication analyzes why, in the last 20 years, sport has ceased to be a priority for the Government.
The two points of comparison are the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the Greek capital, the Cubans, with a delegation of 151 athletes, occupied eleventh place in the medal table with 27 medals; in France, where the Island was in 32nd place, they only obtained nine medals, the same number as the exiled Cubans who played under other flags.
The problem could be seen coming, and each Olympic event in the last two decades presented louder warning signs
The problem could be seen coming, and each Olympic event in the last two decades presented louder warning signs. It was a “radical turn,” says Alma Mater, which spends several paragraphs praising the “sport power” that Cuba once was before going into the details. continue reading
Cuba no longer even has the same level of classification, and officialdom considers “the number of athletes under other flags” a shame. “This constant loss of talent, a well-known cause, distorts any type of medium- and long-term planning with those athletes whose abilities are ideal to offer high performance in more than one cycle. And this affects Cuba like nothing else,” Alma Mater admits.
“Seeing them triumph with other anthems on their lips makes one proud, but it hurts. Moving away is not a sin; it is understandable, and above all if stability in all its aspects is pursued as a reason,” it summarizes.
The key question – which closes the article without an answer – “is not why they leave, but why they don’t stay.” They leave because of the “understandable dissatisfactions of athletes and coaches,” the magazine acknowledges. “It is enough to listen to the statements of those who have remained on the Caribbean island, because it is almost impossible to manage being trained with scarce resources.”
Despite their talent, Cuban athletes are light years away from the type of training that their counterparts receive around the world. They do not enjoy the “strong investment” that all governments offer to the “muscle activity” that will give them important income – economic and prestigious – in the Olympics and other key competitions. “It does not require exquisite knowledge about the economy to conclude that in Cuba this issue goes down the path where the accounts don’t add up,” it argues.
Receiving good training is an aspiration that is, says Alma Mater, using a euphemism, a “distant modernity” for the humble Cuban athletes. It lacks “the technology in the development of plans to finish polishing the capacities, the updating in the methodology when applying the concepts necessary for the competitions and the specialization of the adjacent disciplines in the construction of the athlete.” Against these defects, no talent is worth it. After its analysis, Alma Mater has no choice but to enumerate past glories to give the measure of the debacle.
The flagship of Cuban sport – at least since Munich 1972 – was boxing. Thanks to its star quintet – Yan Bartelemí, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Rigoberto Rigondeaux, Mario Kindelán and Odlanier Solis – the Island took five of the nine gold medals in Athens 2004. Since Montreal 1976, boxers – it was the time of Teófilo Stevenson – had stood up for the country thanks to Soviet money, which Alma Mater remembers with nostalgia: “the context under the five (Olympic) rings was different.”
In Moscow 1980 the Island excelled, partly because “the great powers were absent in those games,” comments the magazine
In Moscow 1980 the Island excelled, partly because “the great powers were absent in those games,” comments the magazine, and the competition was not too strong. Politics continued to mark the paths of the sport and not a few athletes of the Island – the magazine regrets with a certain tone of resentment – were prevented from traveling to Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988. The great return, they say, was Barcelona 1992, with 30 medals and the fifth place in the world. These were the last moments of fame.
With the Special Period, the consequences of the fall of the Soviet Union and the entry into the 21st century, Cuban sport went into a coma. In Beijing 2008, the Island was ranked 27th and demonstrated the unevenness of the athletes compared to international parameters. The country was saved by isolated names, such as Félix Savón in boxing, Javier Sotomayor in the high jump and Elvis Gregory in fencing.
It was a sign that the Island’s sport depended on a few exceptional athletes and not on an organized process. The bills will be paid now, Alma Mater evaluates, since the last athlete of that “legendary” era, Mijaín López, has just retired after his fifth consecutive Olympic gold.
The analysis ends with an image that strives to be poetic: the coach who finds “in the most remote place of our Island that boy or girl with the abilities of a future star.” But it will not do much good, because – as the stampede of baseball prospects shows – children and adolescents both yearn for “the usual departure in search of other horizons.”
Paris must be seen as a trauma and a sign of the unequivocal “situation of crisis” that Cuban sport is experiencing, Alma Mater says, although it soon covers itself and apologizes, because “the phrase sounds strong” despite the good intentions.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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It helps cure diabetes, rehabilitates heart attack patients and increases libido, believers say
There are 16 centers on the island and Díaz-Canel wants to “massify” their therapeutic use
Taking three or four liters is free, although they have now placed a collection dish next to the church, “to contribute a little” / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, August 13, 2024 — The line starts at seven in the morning, next to the Presbyterian temple on Reforma Street, between Santa Ana and Santa Felicia. The habaneros who get up early, however, do not come looking for the Lord – nor for the saints of both streets – but for the water that is dispensed in the church. More than blessed, it is “ozonized and purified,” and healing faculties that border on the miraculous are attributed to it.
Mercedes is one of the believers in the “properties” of ozone. “It’s good for everything, from parasites to bone problems,” she says, quoting her family doctor. For years, Mercedes has become – in her own words – an “ozone container.” She gets up early to go to the temple and guarantee “a few liters.” She drinks the water religiously and is unconditional about ozone therapy, which is available in almost any province of the Island.
“Ozone cures me of everything,” she says with fervor, like someone who invokes a healer or San Rafael, whom she does not deny either. For her, from the very Creole spell – a prayer to San Luis Beltrán for protection against the evil eye – to taping a ribbon around her waist to cure indigestion, “everything is natural medicine,” she explains, before finding her place in the line on Reforma Street.
The Presbyterian Church on Reforma Street, between Santa Ana and Santa Felicia, where water is dispensed / 14ymedio
The morning shadow of the temple does not calm the spirits. A line is a line, and when Mercedes asks* who is last in line there is already an argument in full swing. An old man, who is carrying his wheelbarrow with several gallons, shouts and waves his arms to scare away a line-breaker : “I was there before you and so was he,” he exclaims, pointing to a fellow waiter. “There are some shameless people,” he grumbles, when the intruder is already far away. continue reading
Mercedes is used to this kind of scene. In a precarious environment like Cuba’s, with almost no medicines available, the ozone water is gold. A glance at the line is enough to see the profile of most of the believers: elderly, sick, people in pain from various ailments, poor people.
Genaro, a colleague of Mercedes in the line, tells us about everything that ozone relieves: “back pain, blood pressure and circulatory problems, diabetes, asthma, and it also works on hernias.” The 67-year-old man, who goes to church armed with several so-called cucumbers – one and a half liter bottles – and a gallon, considers himself a “historical figure” when it comes to “Presbyterian water.”
For twelve or thirteen years, since the time he estimates that the service at the temple began, Genaro has been coming to get water. The fact that it is cleaner there and without strange particles, in a country where the water supply leaves much to be desired, is “medicinal” for him and his family.
Usually, two people at a time approach the two plastic faucets that dispense the water / 14ymedio
The project of the Presbyterians – one of the Christian Churches that are on good terms with the Government, which lets it do this in exchange for its loyalty to the official Council of Churches – started thanks to American missionaries. The help “of the Americans” continues: they are the ones who, every year, come to repair and maintain the filters.
“The Americans built a cistern because there was a lot of demand,” Genaro explains. “They come every so often and look it over.”
None of the believers in line – neither Genaro or Mercedes – knows very well how the filtration and ozonization system works. The “apparatus,” as they call it, is safe inside the church facilities. No one is allowed to go in to see the equipment or loiter in the area where they keep it.
When there are too many people in line – the process gets slow sometimes, says Mercedes – they allow a group to fill their bottles from a faucet inside the church, but under strict surveillance. “It’s just that the residence is there, and they recently stole some sheets from the pastor,” Genaro confesses.
Usually, two people at a time approach the two plastic faucets that dispense the liquid, with all the calm in the world. The scene is repeated in many Cuban municipalities, where churches offer this service to help alleviate the hydrological debacle, one of many on the Island.
Taking three or four liters is free, although the Presbyterians now place a collection box next to the church, “to contribute a little.” There is a line until 11 in the morning, and then the “believers” return from three to four-thirty during the week and until six on Sundays.
“At the beginning of the project, people from the polyclinic came,” says Genaro. “They ruled that the water was perfect for consumption.” The old man alludes to the Ministry of Public Health as a global authority on ozone therapy issues, one of the alternative treatments that the Government has “expanded” the most – the term comes from the State newspaper Granma – throughout the globe.
Mercedes, for example, was referred to the Diez de Octubre hospital for a cycle of therapies. “First, a specialist, whether rheumatologist, ophthalmologist, etc., has to prescribe ozone therapy after an interview. You can’t have thyroid problems. Then they determine the frequency and method: there is rectal and paravertebral, that is, injections on both sides of the vertebrae,” the woman explains.
The doses increase. The initial is four weeks, every other day. Antioxidants must be removed during treatment. Suspend or eat less guava, tea, coffee, chocolate and fish. Your libido increases,” she explains mischievously, “your immune system improves, you eliminate parasites. You can immediately notice the improvement, although there are countries that do not accept it and say that it’s useless,” she says, before finishing with a fact: “Ozone is a very old project of the Revolution, and that’s why I have given it to myself all my life.”
Mercedes is not wrong. Not a month passes before the official press publishes one or two articles on the “results and horizons” of ozone therapy in Cuba, a treatment more than discussed by specialists around the world.
At the end of last year, Miguel Díaz-Canel himself was informed about the “positive impact” of the treatment. Its therapeutic use must be “mainstreamed,” the president then decreed, guaranteeing that its results “are proven.”
However, ozone therapy falls under the jurisdiction of the department of Natural and Traditional Medicine of the ministry, whose director – in that same meeting – had little to contribute, except for commonplaces and the fact that it is considered “preventive medicine” on the Island. There are 16 ozone therapy centers in the country, and a diploma is offered to study its effects.
The benefits that Cuban Public Health officially attributes to ozone are much more than Mercedes or Genaro imagine. Díaz-Canel was convinced that, with the treatment, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and diabetes can be faced; it rehabilitates those who have had aneurysms – no matter if it is heart or brain – and its rectal application “accelerated” the recovery of coronavirus patients in 2020. “We were very advanced,” the specialists congratulated themselves in front of Díaz-Canel.
The truth is that there is no scientific evidence that ozone – either in the “holy water,” by anal route or injected into the spine – has the high healing qualities attributed to it by the Public Health of the Island. Like the venom of blue scorpion, on which a dangerous pseudotherapeutic industry has been built, ozone therapy is one of the standards of regime medicine.
“Ozone therapy is not approved either by the European Medicines Agency or by the US Food and Drug Administration
“Ozone therapy is not approved by either the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA),” Dr. Jerónimo Fernández Torrente, coordinator of the Observatory Against Pseudosciences of the Collegiate Medical Organization of Spain, clarified in 2018. “There is no credible scientific evidence that endorses the use of ozone as a type of medical therapy, much less for serious diseases such as cancer. In fact, medical reports and articles have been published on deaths of patients with this method.”
It is a “tremendous deception that we should denounce,” the doctor then said. “At the end of the day, ozone is a toxic gas; it is not harmless.”
These warnings do not discourage Genaro or Mercedes, who will return tomorrow to line up for the “holy water” of the Presbyterians. They follow the principle of Cuban domestic medicine to the letter: “What does not kill, fattens,” and – with their overflowing buckets and their immovable opinions – they continue to venerate San Ozono.
*Translator’s note: When Cubans join a line they ask “who’s last” and then, after the next person comes and they are now that person’s ’last’, they are free to wander around and can rejoin the line in ’their place’ at any time.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The gigantic China Import warehouse opens in Havana, for minimum purchases of 50 dollars and in national currency
Inside the gigantic warehouse, the shelves with all kinds of products multiply / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, 22 August 2024 — The new China Import store that opened just over a month ago at Manglar and Oquendo, very close to the Cuatro Caminos market in Havana, does not yet have many customers, but it soon will. Unlike the state shops, it offers everything, and in abundance; unlike the MSMEs or on the informal market, its prices are ridiculous.
Although the entrance sign says “wholesale selling” and offers its merchandise to retailers, it is open to the public. On one condition, however: you have to spend more than 50 dollars.
Inside the gigantic warehouse, which until a few years ago was part of the Sabatés soap factory – founded by two Spanish brothers, later sold to the multinational Procter & Gamble, nationalized after the triumph of the Revolution and, today, in ruins – the shelves are multiplying with all kinds of products, from clothing, footwear and perfumes to electronics and household items. In contrast to other large state spaces, such as those selling in freely convertible currency (MLC), let alone the dilapidated warehouses, there are few empty corners. Everything is clean and well lit.
The warehouse occupies part of the old Sabatés soap factory, very close to the Cuatro Caminos market in Centro Habana / 14ymedio
The store, the clerk told 14ymedio on Wednesday, has its prices in foreign currency and accepts national currency, “at the exchange rate of the day,” as the signs under the products say, referring to the informal rate, currently continue reading
They also accept electronic transfers in MLC, the employee explains, “but not today because we have connection problems.” It is not a “national private business,” she pointed out, but rather “a foreign investment business.” There were people with oriental faces around the place, presumably the owners.
“Those colognes cost me two thousand and something pesos and here they cost three dollars” / 14ymedio
Headphones, $2.00; progressive glasses, $1.00; sun glasses, $1.50; LED lights, $4.50; mobile chargers, $4; cell phone holders for vehicles, $1.80; rechargeable light bulbs for times of blackout, from $11.50; imitation perfumes, $3.00; bras and panties – on sale for having some stains – $1.00; socks, 50 cents. The buyer’s eyes are lost in the abundance of items, but not only is the minimum purchase dissuasive – the equivalent of 16,000 pesos, five times the average monthly salary – but buying wholesale is also mandatory.
Items are not sold separately but in batches that, as a rule, contain a dozen pieces. “This is for those who have a store or receive remittances,” complained a customer who visited the store for the first time, alerted by a cousin who saw the information “on the networks,” and who had to leave empty-handed. “I don’t even have 50 dollars, and I wouldn’t know where to put all that if I bought it.”
Rechargeable light bulbs, highly valued in times of blackout, were sold from 11.50 dollars / 14ymedio
However, she was amazed at the prices: “Just Imagine, these same things on the street cost three and up to five times the prices here. These colognes cost me 2,500 pesos, and here they are at three dollars [960 pesos at the informal exchange rate]. I have seen the headphones at fairs at 5,000 pesos and the sneakers that here cost 16 dollars [just over 5,000 pesos] – you can’t find them for less than 17,000 pesos out there.”
The sneakers to which this Havana resident of the El Vedado district refers have brand labels, but they are clearly Chinese imitations, like all the merchandise. “They seem to be good quality, but you buy them and after two months have to throw them away because they fall apart.”
Bras and panties sell for one dollar at China Import /14ymedio
So far, no official media has mentioned the inauguration of the store, nor are there details about its owners. Chinese wholesale businesses had already been established on the Island but only online, such as Ninhao53 and Dofimall, a digital stationery store.
“You’ll see when all the resellers of Galiano or the El Curita park find out, then it will get bad, and this will have three-block lines like when there’s chicken for sale in the bodega [ration store],” said another buyer, a thirty-year-old from Central Havana. He did take a batch of magazines, some fly swatters, light bulbs and underwear of various colors and sizes – “to distribute to the family,” he said.
“The sneakers that cost 16 dollars here can’t be found for less than 17,000 pesos out there” / 14ymedio
The young man, who has family in the US, commented mockingly: “This is a ’Chinese Costco’ but with worse quality.”
Another store that received the nickname “Costco” but “Cuban,” the Diplomarket, closed at the end of last June. Its owner, the Cuban-American Frank Cuspinera Medina, was arrested along with his wife, and their whereabouts are unknown to date. In that store, however, only payment in dollars was allowed, and there was no minimum purchase or wholesale, although they did sell Kirkland products, the “real” Costco brand.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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In order to leave the country, he had to go to a police station and declare himself “scum”
In the foreground, García Ramos in a boat with his friend Reinaldo Arenas, exile and literary companion / Reinaldo Cifuentes
14ymedio, Havana, August 20, 2024 — The signature of the poet Reinaldo García Ramos was the third in the inaugural issue of Mariel, the exile magazine that marked an entire generation of Cuban intellectuals and artists. This Monday, the writer’s family reported his death in Miami, at the age of 80, after months of worsening cancer. He was, along with Reinaldo Arenas, one of the most prominent authors of the so-called Mariel Generation.
His death was announced by Milkos D Sosa, García Ramos’ cousin and one of the people – along with the painter Sergio Chávez and his cousin Marianela F. Molina – who accompanied him in his last moments. Sosa described that the poet died “quietly” at 3:45 pm and that his final thoughts were about his books, in particular Una amiga en Paris (Ediciones Furtivas), published this year. “His only wish is that they honor his memory by keeping his literary work alive,” the message ended.
García Ramos defined the Mariel exodus as an “untimely decision of an absolutist ruler,” Fidel Castro. For his colleagues – such as Arenas and the Abreu brothers – exile marked not only their life but also their writing, which acquired a strong commitment to the denunciation of the regime, attested to by the magazine.
He defined the Mariel exodus as an ’untimely decision of an absolutist ruler’
Born in Cienfuegos in 1944, the son of Galician and Canarian emigrants, García Ramos studied French Language and Literature in Havana. A student of personalities such as Camila Henríquez Ureña or Mirta Aguirre – a staunch communist – he remained, in his own words, with a “low profile” so as not to risk the livelihood of his family, which depended on him. continue reading
In 1962, the poetry book Acta – the only book of his that saw light in Cuba – was published by the controversial El Puente project, which the regime dissolved in 1965. He worked for several publishers until his exile, in May of 1980, when he settled in New York. He was a translator at the United Nations headquarters until 2001 and continued his literary work.
He was the author of poetry books such as Caverna fiel and Espacio circular, the essay Una medida exacta and the autobiography Cuerpos al bordo de una isla. His last published book, Una amiga en Paris, collects his correspondence with Ana María Simo, one of the architects of El Puente, between 1968 and 1972.
The recovery of the letters had a great impact on the intellectual community of exile, which saw in the book – in the words of Enrique del Risco – an example of “restitution of the past” in a country like Cuba, of terrible memory. For the essayist, García Ramos and Simo left “an archaeological reconstruction” of a key era for the Island.
They are the years, lived intensely by García Ramos, of the Revolutionary Offensive, the Padilla Case, the fall into disgrace – the parametración – of many writers until then literary critics, the failure of the Ten Million Ton Sugar Harvest and the persecution of his homosexuality, scenes that remain in the 33 letters that García Ramos sent to Simo, who was trying to get him out of the country. Every season of his life realizes his radicalization, which already manifests itself with total freedom in the pages of Mariel.
In an interview he gave to journalist William Navarrete, García Ramos said that he managed to leave after three failed attempts: his aunt, a resident of Miami, had sent boats to pick him up three times, but they never told him. “A neighbor told me that in order to leave by the Mariel (boat lift) we had to go to a police station and declare ourselves ’scum’,” he said. He did so and they gave him a letter; days later, he boarded a bus to El Mosquito, an embarkation point for Florida.
Every season of his life realized his radicalization
He went to New York for Simo – who then lived in that city – to help him, because Miami, according to the writer, was “a city of little importance, not even similar to what it is today. There was a lot of recession and also a lot of drug-related crime.”
García Ramos said that Mariel’s great merit was to provide a space for Cuban exiles, to whom the American cultural world, which sympathized with Castro, closed its doors. It was also “a tribute to those who were part of that exodus of 125,000 people, who were not in their entirety, as the propaganda of Castroism affirmed, criminals and antisocials.”
He returned to Cuba three times, between 2002 and 2006, to see his father, who still lived in Cienfuegos. “My impression was of total sadness in the people,” he said. “Nothing that others have not already said: disappointment, destruction and decadence.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Hypovolemic shock was the cause of death at the age of 62, according to the death certificate.
Massola appeared in many TV series and soaps in Cuban Television / Facebook / Carlos Mazzola
14ymedio, Havana, 3 July 2024 – Cuban actor Carlos Massola died on Wednesday in Havana, aged 62. The news was announced by friends on social media, and, although some publications suggest that the artiste “had not been well” for the last few days, the cause of death has not been clarified.
The news was originally spread on social media by his friends and the cause of death was confirmed this Thursday by the Cubanet portal as hypovolemic shock after having access to his death certificate. Hypovolemic shock causes the heart to be unable to pump enough blood to the body, which can lead to different organs ceasing to function properly.
Later, according to Cubanet, the actor’s body was cremated in the Berroa Incinerator, located in the capital, as was his last wish. Prior to that, some officials of Havana’s Necrological Services had denied the family’s wish to cremate him, justifying it by declaring the dimensions of the coffin were too large.
“Carlos Massola has died. It was a pleasure to direct him in Blue Heart (2021), his last film project. He always contributed so much: he loved to improvise – something which Cuban TV didn’t allow!”, director Miguel Coyula wrote on his Facebook page.
Besides his numerous television appearances in Cuba – mainly as a supporting actor in soaps and police dramas – Massola was also known, during recent years, for his opposition to the regime and for his support for political prisoners. continue reading
In October 2023, the actor posted on Facebook Live a video in which he questioned Miguel Díaz-Canel
In October 2023, the actor posted on Facebook Live a video in which he questioned Miguel Díaz-Canel about political prisoners on the island and asked for their release: “Tell me, Diaz-Canel, if you’ve got everything solved for yourself and your fridge is full, what is this morbid interest of yours in making political prisoners and their families suffer?”
In this way the actor and humourist was criticising the leader’s management skills, alluding to the Cuban people’s difficulties in getting hold of basic food and necessities, as well as to the obstacles that he is imposing on private businesses.
Massola also met up with political prisoners, activists and their families on numerous occasions, to express his support. He also denounced “State Security harassment” a number of times in his public declarations.
In a 2023 interview with CubaNet, the actor called on other artistes to “get on the people’s side”
In a 2023 interview with CubaNet, the actor called on other artistes to “get on the people’s side” and to stop endorsing the regime’s repression. He also mentioned his relationship with his cousin, the television presenter Edith Massola, with whom he confirmed he’d broken all contact. A number of rumours have been linked to the presenter-actor and her family – in particular her daughter Paula – about high positions of power in the regime’s military.
In the same interview Massola said he had been waiting since the previous year for a permit to emigrate to the United States. The actor has appeared in films such as Juan de los muertos (2011), Pata negra (2001) and El Benny (2006), as well as numerous soap operas and series, funded by the Ministry of the Interior, such as Tras la Huella and Día y noche.
At the time of his death Massola was living with his mother, an elderly lady in need of medical support and for whom he was acting as principal carer.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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So far in 2024 a total of 291 migrants have disappeared or died in Caribbean waters
Hundreds of Cubans leave the Island aboard precarious boats / Coast Guard
EFE (via 14ymedio), San José, Costa Rica, 30 August 2024 — At least 291 migrants have disappeared or died so far in 2024 on the dangerous maritime routes of the Caribbean, and international protection actions must be increased, according to the Program of Missing Migrants of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It added that the route with the most victims is the one that goes from Cuba to the United States, with 142 deaths.
The program’s data indicate that, as of August 30, at least 291 migrants have disappeared or died in 2024, an 18% increase compared to the 247 recorded for all of 2023.
The second deadliest route by sea is the one taken from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico, with 91, followed by the route to the Canary Islands, with 15, and from Haiti to the Dominican Republic, with 1 death, according to the program’s data.
The deaths represent an 18% increase, compared to the 247 that were recorded for all of 2023
The regional monitor for the Americas of the Missing Migrants Project, Edwin Viales, said this Friday, in a working session with other similar organizations, that the dangerous natural and climatic conditions of these routes in the Caribbean, added to forced disappearances caused by traffickers, make the boats disappear without a trace. continue reading
“The outlook is not encouraging. Now, more than ever, the coordination of international efforts in the Caribbean is necessary to save lives,” he said.
Viales explained that these routes are used not only by migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean in their objective of reaching the United States, but there have also been cases detected of shipwrecks and disappearances of boats transporting Africans.
One of these cases was recorded on August 6, when the remains of 14 people from Senegal and Mauritania were found on a homemade boat off the coast of the Dominican Republic.
According to Viales, “these transcontinental shipwrecks have been increasing,” since April 13, when a boat was detected in Brazil with the remains of 9 people from Mauritania and Mali.
There is evidence of three similar cases between 2021 and 2022, with a total of 70 deaths in boats found in Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and Granada
In addition, there is evidence of three similar cases between 2021 and 2022, with a total of 70 deaths in boats found in Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and Granada. In 2023, there were also two shipwrecks found with supposed African migrants in Honduras and near Turks and Caicos.
Viales added that in 2023, there was also a complaint from key informants about 105 missing people on the route between San Andrés and the border area between Honduras and Nicaragua. It is suspected that there were two cases of enforced disappearance by groups involved in the trafficking of migrants, and two of shipwrecks.
In this Friday’s session, IOM presented three initiatives on migration in the Caribbean: “One by the Cuban newspaper El Toque, which collects information on the dead and missing; the Route of Life in the Dominican Republic, which aims to raise awareness and educate about the risk of irregular routes, and a project by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) to serve and support Caribbean countries.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Hugo Chávez’s entering the Government turned Venezuela into the most loyal lackey of Castroism.
Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro, talking with Fidel Castro during one of his last public appearances / Granma
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 18 August 2024 — The totalitarian system that Cuba suffers and that threatens Venezuela if Nicolas Maduro and his henchmen are not removed from the government, has always been strongly attracted to the land of the liberator.
The tragedy afflicting Venezuela is the responsibility of Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. Both, with the support of stooges such as Maduro, conspired to rob the country of freedom and wealth and impose castrochavismo throughout the hemisphere.
The two revolutions were always different because there was a giant, a democrat, Rómulo Betancourt, who had the political courage to face the siren songs of Fidel Castro that enchanted the Ulysses wannabes.
With the support of stooges like Maduro, they conspired to rob the country of its freedom and wealth
After the turmoil of the first days filled with problems, upheavals and contradictions, Venezuela took a democratic course, Cuba marched towards totalitarianism.
From the beginning, the Pax Fidelista was imposed. Castroism was enthroned, which mutated into aggressive and expansionist absolutism that corresponded to the nature of the leader and the ideology he claimed to profess. continue reading
In Venezuela, many good people of dissimilar views were willing to work for the country’s progress. They were seduced by the promises of building a better society, even if the tools were machine gun chants and terrorism, advised by Che Guevara.
These men and women, in their eagerness to make their dreams come true, did not realize that they were submitting themselves to a foreign project in exchange for a little shrapnel and a rearguard in which part of the training consisted of learning to lose their freedom of judgment.
On March 13, 1967, Fidel Castro speaking from the former presidential palace in Havana said: “We proclaim once again our unwavering empathy and solidarity with the guerrillas fighting in the mountains of El Bachiller, with the fighters who in the cities defy the repression and the fury of the tyranny”. Castro qualified as tyranny the legitimately elected government of President Raul Leoni, not those of Maduro and Chavez.
July 26, 1960: the Cuban business representative in Caracas, Leon Antich, led a demonstration that threw stones at the capital’s cathedral. Antich was later accused of passing out 400,000 dollars to promote a conspiracy against President Rómulo Betancourt.
Castro defined as tyranny the legitimately elected government of President Raúl Leoni, not those of Maduro and Chávez
1961: Venezuelan authorities seize 500 Czech-made machine guns together with Castro-communist propaganda.
1962: A batch of weapons bearing the coat of arms of the Cuban Armed Forces were seized on the Falcón state beaches.
November 11, 1963: On the Paraguaná peninsula the authorities confiscated three tons of weapons coming from Cuba. Months later, Belgian weapons bearing the coat of arms of the Cuban Armed Forces were seized from Venezuelan guerrillas.
June 24, 1966: an expeditionary group composed of some 40 people, including thirteen individuals of Cuban nationality, among them General Arnaldo Ochoa Sánchez, who would be later executed by Castro, and General Leopoldo Cintas Frías – both were later heads of the Cuban occupation forces in Angola – landed in Tucacas. Specialists affirm that Castro himself said goodbye to the expeditionaries when they left Cuba.
May 8, 1967: the Cuban fishing boat Sierra takes an invading force consisting of Cubans and Venezuelans to the nearby areas of Machurucuto and Boca de Uchire. In the confrontation, Antonio Briones Montoto died and two other Cuban military men were captured: Manuel Gil Castellanos and Pedro Cabrera Torres.
1969: About thirty Venezuelans trained in Punto Cero, Cuba, landed in Venezuela to overthrow the government of Rafael Calderas. All of them were killed by the Army.
Despite all the blood shed by fire and shrapnel, the Castro project in Venezuela did not succeed. It is true that after the passing away of Presidents Romulo Betancourt and Raul Leoni, the Venezuelan leadership in the fight against Castro’s totalitarianism practically disappeared. Even so, the Venezuelan nation, its leaders and the Armed Forces condemned a political model that was against their democratic convictions.
The arrival of Hugo Chávez to the Government radically changed the situation. Venezuela is currently the most faithful lackey of Castroism and the best interpreter of the island’s totalitarianism regarding the plan to destabilize, to the point of destruction, the democracies of the hemisphere. For that reason, the Castroists are against Nicolas Maduro stepping down from power.
Translated by LAR
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Cuban baseball player Alfredo Fadraga with the Rangers softball team in Ciego de Ávila / Facebook/Jeordany Gutierrez
14ymedio, Havana, 23 August 2024 — The Cuban baseball player Alfredo Fadraga, who was suspended for life for an escape attempt in Mexico in 2022, reappeared in the Omar Carrero in Memoriam Cup that was held in Ciego de Ávila. The Avileño defended the colors of the Rangers, in the softball tournament, unofficial and organized by Miguel Mirelles, Jeordany Gutiérrez told Cubalite.
The event, much smaller, brought together “16 teams in five fields and everything that entails: referees, scorers, Red Cross, etc.” Gutiérrez said last Monday on the Facebook page of Locos del Softball. In that same publication, several images were shared, including one in which Fadraga appears with part of the Rangers squad. “Excellent tournament with a high-carat organization and the participation of many figures from our national series and the Major Leagues of the United States,” he said.
Cubalite stressed that the career of the Ávila catcher on the Island “is over” due to the severe sanction imposed by the Cuban Baseball Federation. The tournament was organized to honor Omar Carrero, who participated in 17 national baseball series and left a historic average of clean runs of 2.27 for every nine innings, with 149 wins, 105 defeats and 1,225 strikes. continue reading
Alfredo Fadraga in a March 2023 photo in the Dominican Republic, when he was declared a free agent / X/@francysromeroFR
Fadraga was punished in July 2022, and five months later he managed to legally leave the Island; he settled in the Dominican Republic in search of an opportunity with one of the Major League franchises. However, last June, journalist Yordano Carmona reported that an injury prevented the player from joining an unspecified Major League team, and he decided to return to Ciego de Ávila.
The story of Alfredo Fadraga has been closely followed by journalist Francys Romero since in June 2022, together with his teammate Yosvani Ávalos, he decided to jump the fence of the hotel where the Cuban team that participated in the Pan American U-23 Championship was staying in Aguascalientes.
The journalist denounced the capture of these players after the raid of the state police, as if they were criminals, in addition to his immediate return on a flight to Havana after the arrest.
Romero published videos of Fadraga in the Dominican Republic being watched by talent scouts. The level shown by the player led him to be invited to the Dominican Winter League training with the Eastern Stars.
Fadraga lived a dream in the Dominican Republic, and in March 2023 he was declared a free agent by the Commissioner’s Office. The catcher’s qualities attracted the interest – in August of that same year – of “more than five subsidiaries of Major League teams.”
Yosvani Ávalos also left the Island and, in January 2023, entered Mexico through Tapachula to try to reach the United States.
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.
The accidents also left five injured, one of them critically
A 22-year-old motorcyclist died last Sunday in the municipality of Boyeros / Facebook
14ymedio, Havana, 27 August 2024 — In less than 72 hours, three people have died in Cuba from traffic accidents involving motorcycles. Two of them occurred in Havana and a third in Santiago de Cuba. In all cases, the victims were young men, who died immediately at the scene of the accident.
On Tuesday morning, the first victim in Havana died after crashing into a vehicle while riding his motorcycle through an intersection at Fifth Avenue and 112th Street, in the municipality of Playa, not far from the Coney Island recreational park. Witnesses say that the accident occurred when an almendrón, operating as a collective taxi, stopped to drop off some passengers, and the motorcycle hit it from behind.
Although the identity of the victim is unknown, witnesses describe him as a young man who died immediately at the scene of the incident. The police cordoned off the area, one of the busiest avenues in Havana that connects the Miramar neighborhood, where dozens of embassies and hotels are located, with El Vedado.
Another 22-year-old motorcyclist also died last Sunday in the municipality of Boyeros, in Havana, after losing control of his bike. The mishap was recorded near a P10 stop that is on the bridge on 100th Street and Boyeros, according to a social media post. continue reading
The boy – identified as Yoan – was speeding and swerved to avoid a pothole. When he turned, he hit a curb and fell over on the street
A woman who witnessed the accident said in the comments that “the boy – identified as Yoan – was speeding and swerved to avoid a pothole. When he turned, he hit a curb and fell over on the street. He died instantly.” A few minutes after the accident “many people arrived, and there were relatives crying,” other witnesses added.
Also on Sunday, a Cuban teenager died after being hit by a motorcyclist in Santiago de Cuba. Identified as Kevin Quiala Suárez, 16, he was run over while leaving a bar, according to a report by journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on Facebook.
A witness told the reporter that Quiala Suárez “did not realize that the motorcycle was coming, and it knocked him down.” The motorcyclist “was going too fast. It hit him so hard that the motorcycle went down a block later – it was instantaneous,” wrote another person. Mayeta, a U.S. resident, also reported that the motorcyclist “was injured after the impact and is in critical condition in a hospital in the city.” In addition, the accident left two others injured, who are reported stable.
This Tuesday, Mayeta also reported another accident that left two motorcyclists injured after crashing in the intersection of Calvario and San Gerónimo, in the center of Santiago de Cuba. The identity of both drivers, who were transported to the hospital, is unknown.
Motorcycles, scooters and pedestrians were involved in 55% of the accidents recorded in Cuba between January and October 2023
Motorcycles, scooters and pedestrians were involved in 55% of the accidents recorded in Cuba between January and October 2023, said the Island’s traffic authorities, who added that they were related to 59% of the deaths and 50% of those injured in that period.
Likewise, many of the accidents occur because, as the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, has recognized, 75% of the roads are in fair or poor condition. Given this, the State has justified its null maintenance by the limited availability of raw materials and parts in asphalt factories. Another factor is the significant percentage of vehicles in the country that are between 40 and 70 years old.
Last year alone, 8,556 traffic accidents were recorded that left 729 dead and 5,938 injured. The authorities have said that the main cause of the accidents is the human factor, to which they attribute 91% of the mishaps. “The frequency and dynamics of traffic accidents in the country continues to be marked by the irresponsibility of drivers and pedestrians,” the official newspaper Granma said last January.
During the first half of 2024, according to the Transit authorities of the Ministry of the Interior, accidents on Cuban roads decreased by 13% (543 less), compared to the same period last year, while the number of deaths and injuries fell by 23% and 5%, respectively.
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.
14ymedio, Madrid, September 12, 2024 — The Cuban regime forced Cuban activist and former member of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), Jorge Cervantes García, into exile last Tuesday. As the opponent himself revealed on social networks, the authorities gave him a choice between “banishment and prison” and, after deciding to leave the country, led him directly “to the stairs of the plane.”
