Translating Cuba

The Busy Life of a Young Couple who Have Chosen to Stay in Cuba

Ana and Jairo have several jobs that allow them to get by. They have no plans to leave the country

Ana’s equipment consists of a lamp, a fan and a modest worktable / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Pedro Espinosa, Havana, 28 April 2024 — From pink to lilac nail polish, from glitter to acetone and solvents, the supplies that Ana uses in her manicure business are well-organized along one wall. A lamp, a fan and a modest work table make up the rest of her equipment. Her husband Jairo is an employee at a government warehouse and cuts hair on the side. Both also manage and deliver food orders that have been purchased online by customers living abroad.Ana makes between 10,000 and 12,000 pesos a month. Jairo, about 2,500 from his job at a warehouse and whatever he can earn as a delivery driver. They have no children. They have no plans — at least no obvious ones — to leave Cuba. “And even then it’s not enough for us,” they say.

The current migratory stampede has made leaving Cuba a priority for young people. Any way out, from the U.S. “Humanitarian Parole” program or to closer destinations such as the Dominican Republic, will do. However, those who do not have the resources or cannot afford such a trip must stay behind, often to take care of family members. Many young couples aim a little higher. For them, just surviving is not enough. They want to live.

It is a solid structure, what is referred to as “a capitalist house” because it was built before 1959

The house where Ana and Jairo live is in Havana’s Guanabacoa district. It used to belong to Jairo’s grandmother, who moved in with other family members so that the young couple could have some privacy. “Thanks to her, we have a place to live,” says Jairo. It is a solid structure, what is referred to as “a capitalist house” because it was built before 1959.

From here, telephone in hand, Ana processes orders from an online sales platform three days a week for 6,000 pesos. “I distribute what they send me. I get orders for combos and individual items. I have to arrange to have them delivered which, given the fuel situation, is very difficult.” continue reading

Ana is also studying for a bachelor’s degree in Hygiene and Epidemiology at the University of Havana, attending classes once a week. “My little jobs have given me the money to pay for car fare to the university,” she says.

The “little jobs” are what the couple needs to keep the operations of the manicure business and other ventures up and running. “Everything comes from overseas,” says Ana, pointing t0 the nail polish, tweezers and nail clippers. “I buy it directly from a customer. Otherwise, it would all be very expensive.”

“Everything comes from overseas,” says Ana, pointing t0 the nail polish, tweezers and nail clippers

“I only see two customers a day. I’m a little slow,” she says. “The other work — the online orders — I do on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On those days, I also see customers and make phone calls. There’s no time to waste.” In the evening, she prepares dinner and the next day’s lunch.

Jairo managed to work his way into the food delivery business. If not for the money from that, his earnings would be, he notes sadly, “the basic wage in Cuba.” Thanks to the country’s high inflation rate and cost of living, that 2,500 pesos buys almost “nothing.” He says food and clothing are “not a problem” thanks to his family. Despite being large and aging, they often lend the young couple a hand.

Vacations? “You have to plan them well in advance. If I’m going shell out 10,000 pesos on a trip, I’d rather spend it on food,” reasons Jairo. Ana’s 18-year-old brother Jorge often drops by their house in Guanabacoa. Though he is studying to be a railway mechanic, his “real” job is cutting hair.

“They’re piled one on top of another,” he says of his family members. “Grandmother, great-grandmother, brother, cousin… It pays me enough to live on and to help the family.” His barbershop – a rented cubicle – is as modest as Ana’s “studio.” He charges 500 pesos for a head shave, 150 to trim a beard, 350 to do both but with a “special rate for special clients.” He sees five to ten customers a day. “Like everything, there are good days and bad days.”

Her husband Jairo is an employee at a government warehouse and cuts hair on the side / 14ymedio

Several weeks ago, “Alma Mater,” the University of Havana’s student magazine, decided to address the topic of “leaving versus staying.” The result was an article based on three hours of discussion at an officially sanctioned forum, La Cafetera, sponsored by the university’s School of Communication. The gathering addressed the most disturbing question: What to do if the decision – or the obligation – is to remain in Cuba?

The impetus for this gathering was the success of the play “No Importa” (It Doesn’t Matter”). At the time the article was written, the production had had seventy performances, all to a full house, a demonstration how pertinent the topic of migration has become. After acknowledging the difficulty of remaining on the island, “Alma Mater” returns to the fold, quoting a character who does not want “his elders or his friends shedding tears” if he went into exile.

Less tearful, Ana and Jairo are not leaving because of the many ties they have to Cuba. It is not sentimentalism or patriotism but a reality so harsh that there is no time to even ask the question that the editors of “Alma Mater” asked themselves.

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Seoul and Havana Take One More Step Towards the Opening of Embassies in Both Countries

South Korea will open a temporary office in the Cuban capital until the the diplomatic headquarters is completed

A South Korean delegation visiting Havana this April / @cmphcuba

14ymedio, Havana, April 29, 2024 — After re-establishing diplomatic relations last February, Cuba and South Korea have agreed to open their respective diplomatic headquarters in Seoul and Havana. The pact was signed in the capital of the Island, where several officials of the South Korean Foreign Ministry arrived from April 24 to 27, to exchange diplomatic letters. On the page of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, South Korea also announced the signing of the agreement: “Our Government plans to continue consultations with the Cuban side so that our Embassy in Cuba can be opened as soon as possible. To this end, we will establish a temporary office in Havana as an intermediate step in the opening,” says the portfolio statement, which also announces the sending of diplomatic personnel.

For its part, the Cuban Foreign Ministry published a brief message on its social networks announcing the reception of the Korean delegation, headed by the director general of Coordination and Foreign Planning of that country, Song Si-jin.

The caution of the Cuban authorities around the restoration of relations with South Korea, a potential economic ally, responds to attempts to keep ties stable with North Korea, an important political partner for the Island and an enemy of Seoul, which it has recently threatened to “annihilate.” continue reading

The Cuban Government sees in South Korea an unexplored potential for investments and resources that North Korea hardly offers

The Cuban Government sees in South Korea an unexplored potential for investments and resources that North Korea hardly offers and that, in the current economic crisis, could be a breath of fresh air for the regime.

Suspicion of Havana, however, has not been overlooked by Cubans who, after the announcement of the restoration of diplomatic relations – broken since 1959 by the arrival of Fidel Castro to power – asked the Foreign Ministry for explanations in the comments of the media and social media accounts of the ruling party.

On one hand, users said, relations have been maintained with Pyongyang since 1960, and the country has been a great ally of Havana, a bond that “must be respected.” On the other hand, the most pragmatic asserted, “the Democratic People’s Republic must understand that it is an inalienable right of our country to open up relations with all nations” and, in this case, with one of the most important in the world in terms of technology – something that “perhaps we can take advantage of economically.”

For its part, Seoul has declared its interest in what Havana has to offer. “Cuba is a considerable source of key mineral resources for the production of electric vehicles, such as cobalt and nickel,” the South Korean Presidential Office said last February.

The statement also explained that companies interested in entering the Cuban market would be helped with basic necessities such as appliances and machinery, which have high prices on the Island. Seoul also pointed out multiple business and cooperation opportunities in the energy sector, something that Havana cannot reject in its current situation, when it tries to alleviate the fuel crisis with solar panels and electric vehicles. (South Korea is the headquarters of three of the five companies that dominate the global battery market for this type of vehicle, LG, SK On and Samsung).

Medicine and biotechnology are other areas where the South Korean government sees potential: “Cuba has been an untapped market where direct trade is still very limited due to United States sanctions, but we will take advantage of this opportunity of establishing formal diplomatic relations to lay the foundations for a gradual expansion of economic cooperation,” Seoul said, ignoring the policies of Washington, its closest partner, regarding Havana.

Despite the fact that diplomatic relations were suspended, the rapprochement between Cuba and South Korea coincided, in 2015, with the thaw between Washington and Havana, when several economic exchanges in technological and energy matters began, which were limited by the lack of a favorable diplomatic scenario.

Before the pandemic, about 14,000 South Korean citizens traveled to the Island every year, and another 1,100 descendants of Koreans reside there

In 2022, for example, according to data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, the country exported goods to Cuba for a value of 14 million dollars and imported goods worth 7 million. Likewise, before the pandemic, about 14,000 South Korean citizens traveled to the Island every year, and another 1,100 descendants of Koreans who migrated during the Japanese occupation (1910-1945) reside there. All of them, the Foreign Ministry explained at the time, need “systematic consular assistance.”

Until now, Cuba was the only country on the continent with which South Korea did not maintain links despite the fact that “the two countries have expanded cooperation focusing on non-political fields such as culture, human exchange and development cooperation. In particular, the friendship between the two peoples through recent cultural exchanges has contributed to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries,” said the statement of South Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

Two examples of these relations in “non-political fields” are the purchase by Havana of the Korean-built ferry Perseverancia, which makes the trip between the Isla de la Juventud and the Surgidero of Batabanó (Mayabeque), and the aid worth $200,000 in medicines and health material sent by Seoul after the explosion in 2022 of the Matanzas supertanker base.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Powdered Milk Arrives in Cuba in the Form of Donations From Europe

The Alhucema Solidarity Initiatives Association also sends medical supplies

14ymedio, Madrid, 30 April 2024 — The Alhucema Association of Solidarity Initiatives in Seville, in the Spanish municipality of Morón de la Frontera, twinned with Morón de Ciego de Ávila since 1995, delivered medical supplies and powdered milk this Tuesday. The items, reports Invasor, were acquired by collection over the last two years in the “solidarity” fair Qué Linda es Cuba. This organization dedicates 20% of its income, says the official press, to “financing the trips and purchasing donations” for the Island, not only for its “twin” city,” but also for other “campaigns,”such as “contributions” of syringes for vaccination against Covid-19 and for “repairing the damage” – it indicates, without details – of the explosion of the Saratoga Hotel in Havana.

The Association members will not only deliver the donations but will also participate in the International Seminar for Peace and for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases that will be held in Guantánamo on May 4 and 5. There are two military bases in Spain that are shared with the United States: an air force base in Morón de la Frontera and a naval station in Rota. The US ceased to have control over these bases in 1998.

The first container, however, will not arrive until mid-June, so the situation of powdered milk will not improve in the coming days

The organization has helped Cuba on other occasions, the local press reports, although not by much. Two years ago, it delivered health supplies worth 3,000 euros to two hospitals, and four years ago, 1,000 euros worth of supplies together with the Maximiliano Tornet Association, from Huelva, also in Andalusia.

More advantageous for the Island is the donation of the French association Cuba Coopération France, which, according to Prensa Latina on Sunday, raised a total of 63,000 euros to “support vulnerable sectors” and will send a container of powdered milk to the country.

According to the official media, the organization states that the “immediate objective” is to collect 76,000 euros “in order to send a second shipment of powdered milk, aimed at alleviating the impact of the American blockade* on the population, in particular children and the elderly.”

The first container, however, will not arrive until mid-June, so the powdered milk situation will not improve in the coming days. Last March, the Government hurried to reassure the population, saying that the import of a total of 1,750 tons of food from several countries – 500 from the United States – would guarantee its availability until April.

In February, for the first time in its history, the Cuban government formally requested help from the UN World Food Program to obtain milk for children under the age of seven.

*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 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 Authorities ‘Reinsert’ Juan Miguel Echevarría Into Cuban Athletics

“I have fulfilled my dream of joining the team of the great Iván Pedroso,” said the athlete himself, who has not competed since 2021

Athlete Juan Miguel Echevarría, who has not competed since 2021, asked in 2022 for his withdrawal from the sport in Cuba for “personal reasons” / EFE

EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 30 April 2024 — Cuban long jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría will compete for the Island again. The sports authorities, Jit reported on Monday, “welcomed the wish expressed by the Olympic long-jump runner-up. Given the absence of elements that disqualify him, his case will be added to the current reintegration policy for Cuban sports,” said National Commissioner Rolando Charró, without naming the 25-year-old athlete, the winner of the silver medal in Tokyo 2020 and indoor world champion in Birmingham (United Kingdom, 2018), and without clarifying where he currently resides.

“I have fulfilled my dream of joining the team of the great Iván Pedroso,” Echevarría himself said on his Facebook page, where he also thanked “my former coaches, to whom I am indebted for being here.” In the same publication he says he will begin working to “first achieve the score required for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, with the desire to compete and continue to give victories to Cuba.”

Deporcuba reported on its social networks that the athlete was “now in Spain with Iván Pedroso to work for the Olympic dream on behalf of Cuba.” The Echevarría score, 8.68 meters, places him in twelfth place in the world ranking.

In July of last year, the specialized media announced that the Olympic medalist was looking for “a professional contract” in Portugal, where he would have arrived on an indeterminate date. Echevarría, who has not competed since 2021, asked in 2022 for his withdrawal from the sport in Cuba for “personal reasons” and rejoined in January 2023. continue reading

Echevarría’s departure from the Island coincided with the elimination by the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) of the controversial requirement of “repatriation” so that Cubans living abroad can represent the Island.

His return is vital in the midst of the severe crisis of Cuban sports, marked by escapes. Just last week, the judoka Magdiel Estrada fled the national delegation while it was in Brazil.

That desertion was added to those of soccer defender Lázaro Castro two weeks ago in Nicaragua, athletics champion Osmany Diversent in February and wrestlers Susana Martínez and Santiago “Santiaguito” Hernández that same month.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Spending One’s Youth in Prison, the Cuban Regime’s Punishment for Filming a Protest

Before ending up in a dungeon, people prefer to hang up their ideological mask or emigrate to any country where peaceful protest is not so harshly penalized.

Most of the 13 Cubans prosecuted for the demonstrations in the Camagüey municipality Nuevitas were tried for the crime of sedition / Mayelín Rodríguez Prado/Facebook

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 30 April 2024 –She was 21 years old when she took her mobile phone and recorded part of the popular protests that shook the city of Nuevitas, in the Cuban province of Camagüey, in August 2022. Just a few days ago it was learned that a court sentenced her to 15 years in prison. If she serves that complete sentence, when she is released from prison, Mayelín Rodríguez Prado will be close to completing four decades of life. She will have spent the most precious moments of her existence behind bars. The time of studying for a university degree, of walking with her young friends, of being a mother or undertaking a professional project, will all be spent for her in a penitentiary.

Most of the 13 Cubans prosecuted for the demonstrations in that Camagüey municipality were tried for the crime of sedition, the legal figure that the Cuban regime also used against some of the protesters in the historic protests of 11 July 2021 (’11J’). In the case of Rodríguez Prado, his participation was limited to transmitting the events in Nuevitas through Facebook and collecting testimony from some girls who were beaten by uniformed troops after they detained several participants in the revolt.

For the summer that is upon us, the reasons that led the residents of Nuevitas to take to the streets two years ago seem to be repeated

The severity of the sentences seeks to send an exemplary message to the rest of the Cuban population. The official plan is to warn every citizen that any demonstration of dissent in the streets will be harshly punished. In addition to the reduction in civic rights that this State policy entails, it brings with it two phenomena that, although secondary, are no less important: the extension of opportunism and the increase in exodus. Before ending up in a dungeon, people prefer to hang up their ideological mask or emigrate to any country where peaceful protest is not so harshly penalized. continue reading

It is also significant that these protesters have been tried for sedition. According to the Cuban Penal Code, it is a “crime against the internal security of the State” and is used against those who “riotously and through express or tacit concert, using violence, disturb the socialist order.” But, despite this explanation, it is impossible to separate the word from its military connotations, associating it with the mutiny or uprising carried out by troops recruited in a military framework. That evocation is not far from the reality of this Island.

For decades, the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) has treated its citizens as part of a platoon, as simple troops in a barracks. For the authorities of this country, ordinary people must respond quickly and without hesitation to official calls, accept orders without question no matter how delirious they may seem, always be alert to fight the enemy in a battle that never comes, and swallow criticism without disobeying superiors. Even though we don’t wear uniforms, we are all treated like common soldiers. Any social insubordination will be judged as if it were a trial in a military court.

The effectiveness of this message of terror can only be proven over time. For the summer that is upon us, the reasons that led the residents of Nuevitas to take to the streets two years ago seem to be repeated. The energy deficit increases as temperatures rise, the subsidized basic family basket suffers fluctuations in supplies and is barely enough to eat badly for a few days of the month. Social fatigue does not stop growing due to inflation, the devaluation of the Cuban peso and the evident inability of the PCC leadership to find solutions. The soldiers behave more like citizens every day: they complain loudly and believe that the streets belong to them.

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The Official Press Celebrates a Million Tourists in 2024 as an ‘Element That Confirms’ the Recovery

‘Prensa Latina’ once again remembers the goal of three and a half million travelers, very far from the more than four million in 2019

Tourists on Obispo Street, in Old Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Havana, 28 April 2024 — A little more than a week after the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei) reported that Cuba received 809,238 international visitors in the first quarter of the year, the official press celebrates that, last Friday, the Island reached one million travelers since the beginning of 2024.

For Prensa Latina, it is the “element that officially confirms the possibility” of recovery of the sector, which has not raised its head since the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the economic aspiration for this year of 3,500,000 visitors, reported by the official agency, is still far removed from the 4,275,558 that arrived in Cuba in 2019, a year before the pandemic, not to mention that the Caribbean low season is now beginning.

The authorities, in any case, continue to strive to enhance the sun and beach destination of the Island, and the International Tourism Fair will focus on this. It will be held at the Jardines del Rey tourist center, in Ciego de Ávila, between May 1 and 5. continue reading

Canada continues to send the most tourists to Cuba, followed by the Cuban community abroad

The million travelers who have arrived in the country, although it represents twice those who arrived in the same period of 2023, don’t reach the figures for the same period in 2018 and 2019, when in January and April, 1,802,853 and 1,928,561 tourists were received, respectively.

Canada continues to send the most tourists to Cuba, followed by the Cuban community abroad, Russia, the United States, Germany, France, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Spain and Argentina.

Faced with the decrease in the usual markets, Juan Carlos García Granda, Minister of Tourism, has leaned towards new options. In January, he declared at the International Tourism Fair in Madrid that “Russia could still grow much more. We have other countries such as China, Poland, Eastern European countries, Turkey and Arab countries that are growing today, and we undoubtedly have to take a look at Latin American countries.”

García Granda’s intentions coincide with the promises made by the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, during his visit to China in December 2023 to make adjustments in hotel facilities to “capture” more Asian visitors. For its part, at the beginning of April, Cubana de Aviación announced the restoration of the Beijing-Havana route in May with Air China.

In 2023, three out of four hotel rooms on the Island were left empty

Attention to the Russians is not neglected either. García Granda expects about 200,000 travelers from that country to arrive in Cuba in 2024. So that they have no problems with payments, MIR cards have been accepted on the Island since November last year. “The Russian MIR card has arrived in Cuba to stay,” he said at a press conference convened by the TASS agency at the beginning of March during his visit to Russia.

The minister did not miss the opportunity to promote the Island as a tourist destination and offered the Kremlin investment opportunities and the inauguration of Russian-managed hotels.

Although the “recovery” of tourism to which the regime aspires does not achieve the numbers that gave the sector the epithet of “locomotive of the Cuban economy,” the Government continues to invest a lot of capital in it. In 2023, 23.745 billion pesos (almost one billion dollars at the official exchange rate) were allocated to business and real estate services and rental, and 8.626 billion pesos or 360 million dollars to hotels and restaurants. Between the two areas, they represent 33.5% of the total investments compared to the little money allocated to sectors such as Education, Health, Agriculture and Science and Technology.

However, in 2023, three out of four hotel rooms on the Island were left empty, according to the annual report of selected tourism indicators.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Pan-American Judo Champion Is the Latest of the Escaped Cuban Athletes

Magdiel Estrada, 29, escaped last Wednesday in Brazil

Magdiel Estrada took advantage of his trip to Rio de Janiero (Brazil) to escape / Prensa Latina]]

14ymedio, Havana, 28 April 2024 — The Pan American and Central American judo champion, Magdiel Estrada, 29, fled the Cuban delegation in Brazil last Wednesday. However, it was not until Friday that it was confirmed by the official media Jit. The young man, a native of Matanzas, did not show up for his match on Friday in the 73-kilogram category in the Pan American and Oceania Judo Championship held in Rio de Janeiro and escaped from the Island team “before fulfilling his commitment,” Jit said.

Magdiel Estrada did not show up for his Friday match in the Pan American and Oceania Judo Championships

The first news of Estrada’s ’desertion’ was given on the Facebook page ‘The Truth of Judo’. The same publication pointed out that it was an “intelligent decision” of an athlete who, due to his age, was about to leave the national team. He recalled that “there are countless glories with world and Olympic results,” but when the cycle ends the “privileges fall off.”

The Play-Off Magazine portal reported that Estrada was deleted from the list of the Olympic classification ranking after his escape. “He appears as retired.” It also said that with Estrada’s dismissal, “Judo and the Cuban sports movement lose a prominent figure less than three months before the great date in the French capital. A phenomenon that doesn’t stop.”

At the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile (2023), Magdiel Estrada won gold in the mixed team category. That same year he also won the gold medal at the Central American Games in San Salvador, in addition to the Pan American Judo Open in Lima. continue reading

He also won the gold medal in the Pan American championships held in Peru (2019) and San José (2018).

The escape of Estrada joins that of Lázaro Castro, who abandoned the Cuban soccer team in Managua, on April 18

Estrada’s escape is in addition to that of defender Lázaro Castro, who left the Cuban soccer team in Managua, Nicaragua, on April 18. The news was announced by journalist Andy Lans, who said that the team led by Osmel Valdivia was left with 13 athletes.

Before Castro, last February, Osmany Diversent, the gold medalist at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, fled before his participation in the Pan American Olympic qualifying tournament.

The digital creator Roly Dámaso, who closely followed the incidents of the event, also spread the news of the escape of Susana Martínez and Santiago “Santiaguito” Hernández at the beginning of that same month.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Young Woman Who Broadcast the Nuevitas Protests Is Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison

Fray Pascual Claro Valladares attempts suicide in prison upon learning of his sentence, 10 years in prison for sedition
Between 4 and 15 years in prison for 13 peaceful protesters in the city of Camagüey

Mayelín Rodriguez Prado was 21 years old at the time of the protests in Nuevitas, Camagüey / Facebook/Mayelin Rodríguez Prado

14ymedio, Madrid, April 28, 2024 — The judgments of the Provincial Court of Camagüey handed down against the demonstrators of Nuevitas in August 2022 repeat the repressive pattern of the protests of 11 July 2021 (11J). Thirteen Cubans have been sentenced to between 4 and 15 years in prison for peacefully taking to the streets to protest. According to activist Marcel Valdés, one of them, Fray Pascual Claro Valladares, “tried to hang himself” in the Cerámica Roja prison, in the same province, when he learned of his sentence: 10 years of deprivation of liberty for the crime of sedition. His mother, Yanelis Valladares Jaime, also prosecuted for sedition, was acquitted “for insufficient evidence.”

The highest sentence was for Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, the then 21-year-old who transmitted the protests through Facebook, and who has been sentenced to the 15 years in prison that the Prosecutor’s Office requested, for “enemy propaganda of a continuous nature” and “sedition.” Prosecutors also asked for 15 years for José Armando Torrente Muñoz, who was finally sentenced to 14 years of deprivation of liberty for the crimes of sedition, attack and resistance.

Jimmy Jhonson Agosto and Ediolvis Marin Mora were sentenced to 13 years in prison, both for sedition and sabotage

Jimmy Jhonson Agosto and Ediolvis Marin Mora were sentenced to 13 years in prison, both for sedition and sabotage. They are followed in gravity by the conviction of Lisdan Cabrera Batista with 11 years in prison for sedition and “other acts against State Security.”

Most of the defendants were sentenced to 10 years in prison for sedition, the crime par excellence that was also used in the sentences of those arrested for 11J. Along with that of Fray Claro Valladares, it was applied to Davier Leyva Vélez, Keiler Velázquez Medina, Menkel de Jesús Menéndez Vargas, Frank Alberto Carreón Suárez and Lázaro Alejandro Pérez Agosto. continue reading

For his part, Yennis Artola del Sol received an 8-year sentence of deprivation of liberty for “enemy propaganda of a continuous nature,” and Wilker Álvarez Ramírez received 4 years for cover-up.

The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH) issued a statement this Saturday in which it condemns “in the most energetic terms” the resolution of this trial, which took place for two days last January.

The Justice 11J organization, which compiles the list of demonstrators detained since that day in 2021, reported in August 2022, after two consecutive days of peaceful demonstrations in Nuevitas, the “violent” arrest of José Armando Torrente, who took to the streets in the Pastelillo neighborhood. The NGO then warned that there was “audiovisual evidence of the assault on his 11-year-old daughter, Gerlin Torrente Echeverría” and another girl who accompanied her, when the police repressed the protesters.

The OCDH issued a statement this Saturday in which it condemns “in the strongest terms” the resolution of this trial

Gerlin’s mother was also violently arrested, but released on Saturday night. Fray Claro Valladares and Mayelín Rodríguez Prado were interrogated for transmitting the protests through Facebook.

The demonstrations in Nuevitas began on the night of August 18 with the cry of “the people are tired.” Hundreds of neighbors took to the streets to shout slogans of freedom and demands for electricity. They also threatened to return to the streets if the authorities cut off the power again.

The next day, the neighbors of Nuevitas reported the militarization of the place.

The protests, as observed in numerous videos shared on social networks, were massive, lit by the flashlight of cell phones and motorcycle headlights and accompanied by beating on saucepans, honking horns, clapping and yelling slogans.

Along with the cries that called for the end of the blackouts – “turn on the current, dicks” – those of “freedom” and “homeland and life” also resounded. Some citizens shouted that irreverent slogan repeated on 11J – “hey, police dickheads” – and others sang the national anthem in unison at the top of their lungs.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Political Police Intensify Their Harassment Against Several Cuban Opponents and Journalists

State Security has launched a “repressive escalation” throughout the island, family and friends denounce

So far this month, Tan Estrada has been fined for alleged violation of Decree-Law 370, interrogated twice and suffered internet cuts / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, April 27, 2024 — Several independent activists and reporters have denounced the arrest of Camagueyan journalist José Luis Tan Estrada by State Security this Friday in Havana. After a month of tensions with the authorities, the reporter had traveled to the Cuban capital from Camagüey, and according to several sources he spent the night at the headquarters of the political police, Villa Marista. Activist Yamilka Lafita said that she had received, at 8:00 pm on Friday, a phone call from Tan Estrada in which he described his arrest at 2:00 pm, when he arrived in Havana. Lafita denounced the fact and warned about “what happens in those cells, the torture and psychological pressures to which the people who are transferred there are subjected.”

According to journalist José Raúl Gallego, a resident of Mexico, Tan Estrada has been harassed for several weeks by agents of the Ministry of the Interior. So far this month, he says, Estrada has been fined for alleged violation of Decree-Law 370, interrogated twice and had his internet cut off. In addition, the journalist has been “detained, threatened with a beating and harassed on social networks by cyber stalkers,” Gallego said.

Tan Estrada, a collaborator of several independent media after his expulsion in 2022 from his position as professor at the University of Camagüey, suffers – according to Gallego – “repressive escalation, intimidation of his family” and warnings that he must leave his job as a reporter. continue reading

According to Gallego, the opponent José Antonio Pompa López is also detained in Villa Marista

According to Gallego, the opponent José Antonio Pompa López is also detained in Villa Marista. On Friday morning, after leaving his son at school, the agents of the political police “picked him up” on the street, according to his wife, Suarmi Hernández, as quoted by Cubanet. State Security also showed up at his house and carried out a search.

Pompa López also had the opportunity to make a call before being held incommunicado. The cause of the arrest and search, according to his wife, was a surprise investigation to demonstrate his links with the opposition organization Cuba Primero. They didn’t find the alleged evidence, since “he had already gotten rid of it,” Hernández said.

The Police, however, told the woman that Pompa López had received a mobile phone from Cuba Primero and that “they were going to take him to Villa Marista.” “My husband is unjustly detained because you can’t be arrested without cause or evidence,” she added.

The arrest of Ailex Marcano, mother of the political prisoner Ángel Jesús Veliz, was also reported in Camagüey

Cubanet also denounced the arrest in Camagüey of Ailex Marcano, mother of the political prisoner Ángel Jesús Veliz. She had gone to Kilo 9 prison to visit her son when two patrols intercepted her. The agents transferred her to Villa María Luisa – the state security barracks in the province – without offering explanations.

She suffered, as Marcano herself told the media after she was released, interrogations and a search, for which she had to undress. “They threatened to send me to prison because they said that my posts on social networks incited people to go out into the streets and to collaborate with ’counter-revolutionary’ organizations such as the Ladies in White. They wanted to make me sign a warning letter, but I refused to do it,” she said.

Marcano could not see her son, who was taken to an isolation cell for protesting his mother’s arrest. Nor did they allow him to make calls.

The negotiation for the release of political prisoners that the regime keeps imprisoned after several cycles of protests since 2021 has reached a standstill. Although several organizations, such as the Catholic Church, have been willing to negotiate their release, the regime does not show signs of flexibility, and every month new episodes of harassment and arrests occur.

The organization Prisoners Defenders (PD) recorded in its most recent report, after the March protests, 1,092 people imprisoned for political reasons. PD, based in Madrid, indicated that last month it added to its list 31 individuals who qualify as political prisoners and that six others left the registry after being released. According to PD, 24 of the 31 political prisoners were linked to “the peaceful demonstrations of March” that began on the 17th in Santiago de Cuba when hundreds of people peacefully took to the streets to protest.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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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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