Potatoes Return to the Rationed Market / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 23 February 2017 – The unrationed
distribution of potatoes, a symbol of Raul Castro's government, has
suffered a big setback. During the quarter of February, March and April,
the distribution of potatoes was returned to the ration market
throughout the country, with a limit of 14 pounds per person and
requiring the presentation of a ration book, according to announcements
made by the authorities in local media.
The measure has been taken to "ensure the population greater access to
the purchase of potatoes," says the official statement.
The purchase will be "recorded in the ration book and maintains the
value of one peso"
The user will receive "14 pounds per capita (two in the first month and
six in each of the two remaining months) at state agricultural markets
(MAE) and bodegas." The purchase will be "recorded in the ration book
and maintains the value of one peso."
The areas that do not receive potatoes this month will be able to
acquire the pounds corresponding to February along with the six pounds
for March.
The potato was distributed exclusively in the controlled way until 2009
at a price of 0.45 Cuban pesos per pound, less than 2 cents US. After
that, sales were uncontrolled at a price of 1 Cuban peso ($0.04 US), an
amount the state described as subsidized.
Between the years 2014 and 2015, the potato harvest experienced
important growth, going from a little more than 53,000 tonnes, to
123,000 tonnes. But domestic consumption also grew with the greater
number of tourists coming to the country and the expansion of the
private sector, especially those dedicated to food services.
The distribution of the nationally grown potato, with a lower yield than
the imported, started this year in the municipalities of Artemisa, San
Antonio, Guira de Melena and Alquizar, where the potatoes are grown. In
the coming days potatoes will also arrive in the capital, where
consumers are anxiously awaiting them.
"Something had to be done because when the potatoes came, the only ones
who could buy them were the resellers and the hoarders," complains
Samuel, a retired resident of nearby Estancia Street, outside the Youth
Labor Army on Tulipan Street.
For the man, "the measure favors the poorest people," although he still
thinks that "the price is very high" for those who are living on a
pension. "I only get 180 Cuba pesos a month (roughly $7.20 US) and it's
not enough," he says.
"That was a decision from above, and it surprised a lot of people here,"
an official told 14ymedio
However, María Victoria, a worker at a foreign exchange store, believes
that "this is a step back, because at this point the ration book doesn't
have them." The state employee is surprised by the return of the potato
to the ration market. "Instead of going forward, I think we're going
backwards," she said.
In the Ministry of Agriculture, all the workers who enter the imposing
building and the drivers who wait outside for some official are talking
about potatoes. "That was a decision from above, and it surprised a lot
of people here," one of them tells 14ymedio, preferring to remain anonymous.
Last April, the Communist Party Congress ratified the Guidelines for
Economic and Social Policy, among which it was agreed "to continue the
orderly and gradual elimination of products on the ration
book." However, the decision has not been implemented so far.
Source: Potatoes Return to the Rationed Market / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata
– Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/potatoes-return-to-the-rationed-market-14ymedio-zunilda-mata/
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Are Bikes Coming Back to Cuba With the Economic Crisis?
Are Bikes Coming Back to Cuba With the Economic Crisis? / 14ymedio,
Marcelo Hernandez
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 23 February 2017 — When you look at
the photos of the most difficult years of Cuba's "Special Period," there
are several details that can be observed: how skinny Cubans were, the
deterioration of their clothing, and the number of bicycles that filled
the streets. Just like the dial phone evokes the first half of the
twentieth century, these pedal-powered vehicles remind many Cubans of
the most difficult times of their lives.
Despite the benefits to health and the environment, most of those born
in the last half century on this island see bicycles as a means of
transportation for times of crisis. It is no coincidence that the
decline in the use of these vehicles began with the opening to tourism
in the 1990s, and with the distribution of licenses for the operation of
a private sector.
Thousands of bike-focused parking lots, tire-patchers and bike-repairers
saw their clientele gradually diminish until they had to close. In
Havana very few of these places are left, though they once sprinkled the
landscape of the city. Also disappearing, along with them, is the
massive imports of parts from China to be assembled into bikes in Cuba.
However, with the economic difficulties of recent months, led by the
drop in oil shipments from Venezuela, some are making haste to reassume
the custom of pedaling. Late, missing and overcrowded buses, along with
the fallout from state-imposed price controls on private taxis – which
has even resulted in drivers going on strike – has led a resurgence of
problems in getting from place to place.
Resigned, some are dusting off their bikes and launching themselves into
the streets under their own power, on two wheels.
Source: Are Bikes Coming Back to Cuba With the Economic Crisis? /
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/are-bikes-coming-back-to-cuba-with-the-economic-crisis-14ymedio-marcelo-hernandez/
Marcelo Hernandez
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 23 February 2017 — When you look at
the photos of the most difficult years of Cuba's "Special Period," there
are several details that can be observed: how skinny Cubans were, the
deterioration of their clothing, and the number of bicycles that filled
the streets. Just like the dial phone evokes the first half of the
twentieth century, these pedal-powered vehicles remind many Cubans of
the most difficult times of their lives.
Despite the benefits to health and the environment, most of those born
in the last half century on this island see bicycles as a means of
transportation for times of crisis. It is no coincidence that the
decline in the use of these vehicles began with the opening to tourism
in the 1990s, and with the distribution of licenses for the operation of
a private sector.
Thousands of bike-focused parking lots, tire-patchers and bike-repairers
saw their clientele gradually diminish until they had to close. In
Havana very few of these places are left, though they once sprinkled the
landscape of the city. Also disappearing, along with them, is the
massive imports of parts from China to be assembled into bikes in Cuba.
However, with the economic difficulties of recent months, led by the
drop in oil shipments from Venezuela, some are making haste to reassume
the custom of pedaling. Late, missing and overcrowded buses, along with
the fallout from state-imposed price controls on private taxis – which
has even resulted in drivers going on strike – has led a resurgence of
problems in getting from place to place.
Resigned, some are dusting off their bikes and launching themselves into
the streets under their own power, on two wheels.
Source: Are Bikes Coming Back to Cuba With the Economic Crisis? /
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/are-bikes-coming-back-to-cuba-with-the-economic-crisis-14ymedio-marcelo-hernandez/
Oswaldo Payá Award Ceremony Is Absent The Winners
Oswaldo Payá Award Ceremony Is Absent The Winners / 14ymedio, EFE
Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro could not collect. (Networks)
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 22 February 2017 — The presentation of the Oswaldo
Payá "Freedom and Life" Prize has led to a diplomatic conflict, after
the Cuban government vetoed the entry into the country of three of the
guests: OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, Former Mexican President
Felipe Calderón, and Mariana Aylwin.
Almagro, Calderón and Chilean delegate Mariana Aylwin were unable to
travel to the Caribbean country on Tuesday to participate in the event
called by the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy, chaired by
Rosa Maria Payá, daughter of the late Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá,
which the Cuban government Cuban has labeled a "provocation."
Around Payá's house, in the Havana municipality of Cerro, a police
operation deployed in the early hours of the day prevented activists
from reaching the home. From Manila Park, near the house, State Security
agents dressed in civilian clothes demanded documentation from any
dissident or independent journalists who approached.
Payá told this newspaper that her phone had been "out of service" in the
afternoon although "in the morning it worked." The ceremony was attended
by seven activists who had spent the night in the house "plus another 20
people who where able to reach it," said the dissident. Among them was
the head of the political-economic section of the US Embassy in Cuba,
Dana Brown, as well as diplomatic representatives from Sweden and the
Czech Republic.
Payá told this newspaper that her phone had been "out of service" in the
afternoon although "in the morning it worked"
Payá said that the award ceremony had been surrounded by a lot of
repression on the part of the regime, Cuban State Security and the
Foreign Ministry." She condemned the reprisals "suffered by civil
society members who wanted to participate in the ceremony, resulting in
many of them being arrested and others prevented from leaving their homes."
All of the leaders of the opposition groups on the island "were
invited," Payá told this newspaper. "There are some with whom we have
lost communication over the last few days because of everything that is
happening, and others who are not in the country and others who couldn't
get here."
"We hope that this aggression, this rudeness, will find a response and a
reaction in all the governments belonging to the Organization of
American States (OAS), in all the governments of our region and also in
the European Union," said Rosa María Payá.
Luis Almargo tweeted: Our interest: To facilitate #Cuba's approach to
Interamerican values/principles and to expand the country's achievements
in science, health and education.
The Chilean and Mexican Chancelleries regretted the decision of
Cuba, and Chile announced that it will call its ambassador on the island
for consultations.
Meanwhile, the only official response from Cuba has come from the
Cuban embassy in Chile, which issued a communication referring to the
matter as "a grave international provocation against the Cuban
government," with the aim of "generating internal instability" and
affecting Cuba's diplomatic relations with other countries.
According to this note, the act was created "by an illegal anti-Cuban
group that acts against constitutional order and that arouses the
repudiation of the people, with the collusion and financing of
politicians and foreign institutions."
The ceremony finally took place without the presence of the
international guests. "The chairs will remain empty" until the awardees
"can land in Havana" to pick them up in person, assured Rosa María
Payá. Other Cuban guests were prevented from leaving their homes or
arrested on the road.
Independent journalists Henry Constantin Ferreiro and Sol García Basulto
were detained in the airport of Camagüey at the moment that they tried
to board a flight towards the capital.
Constantín Ferreiro is vice-president of the Inter-American Press
Association for Cuba and remains in custody without his parents being
able to see him or provide him with personal hygiene supplies, according
to his father.
Havana's decision not to authorize the arrival of the head of the OAS
was known after a night of uncertainty in which it was not clear whether
Almagro had traveled to the Cuban capital, where he initially planned to
fly from Paris, where he had participated in institutional activities
yesterday. Rosa María Paya today called on the OAS to support the right
of the Cuban people to decide on their destiny.
"To the point that Cuba is democratizing, all democracies in Latin
America will also gain stability," said the opposition leader, who hoped
that "today is the beginning of an OAS commitment to the cause of rights
and freedom in Cuba."
She pointed out that they do not expect the OAS to "speak out against
anyone," but instead to put itself "on the side of all Cuban citizens in
their right to begin a transition process."
Source: Oswaldo Payá Award Ceremony Is Absent The Winners / 14ymedio,
EFE – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/oswaldo-paya-award-ceremony-is-absent-the-winners-14ymedio-efe/
Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro could not collect. (Networks)
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 22 February 2017 — The presentation of the Oswaldo
Payá "Freedom and Life" Prize has led to a diplomatic conflict, after
the Cuban government vetoed the entry into the country of three of the
guests: OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, Former Mexican President
Felipe Calderón, and Mariana Aylwin.
Almagro, Calderón and Chilean delegate Mariana Aylwin were unable to
travel to the Caribbean country on Tuesday to participate in the event
called by the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy, chaired by
Rosa Maria Payá, daughter of the late Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá,
which the Cuban government Cuban has labeled a "provocation."
Around Payá's house, in the Havana municipality of Cerro, a police
operation deployed in the early hours of the day prevented activists
from reaching the home. From Manila Park, near the house, State Security
agents dressed in civilian clothes demanded documentation from any
dissident or independent journalists who approached.
Payá told this newspaper that her phone had been "out of service" in the
afternoon although "in the morning it worked." The ceremony was attended
by seven activists who had spent the night in the house "plus another 20
people who where able to reach it," said the dissident. Among them was
the head of the political-economic section of the US Embassy in Cuba,
Dana Brown, as well as diplomatic representatives from Sweden and the
Czech Republic.
Payá told this newspaper that her phone had been "out of service" in the
afternoon although "in the morning it worked"
Payá said that the award ceremony had been surrounded by a lot of
repression on the part of the regime, Cuban State Security and the
Foreign Ministry." She condemned the reprisals "suffered by civil
society members who wanted to participate in the ceremony, resulting in
many of them being arrested and others prevented from leaving their homes."
All of the leaders of the opposition groups on the island "were
invited," Payá told this newspaper. "There are some with whom we have
lost communication over the last few days because of everything that is
happening, and others who are not in the country and others who couldn't
get here."
"We hope that this aggression, this rudeness, will find a response and a
reaction in all the governments belonging to the Organization of
American States (OAS), in all the governments of our region and also in
the European Union," said Rosa María Payá.
Luis Almargo tweeted: Our interest: To facilitate #Cuba's approach to
Interamerican values/principles and to expand the country's achievements
in science, health and education.
The Chilean and Mexican Chancelleries regretted the decision of
Cuba, and Chile announced that it will call its ambassador on the island
for consultations.
Meanwhile, the only official response from Cuba has come from the
Cuban embassy in Chile, which issued a communication referring to the
matter as "a grave international provocation against the Cuban
government," with the aim of "generating internal instability" and
affecting Cuba's diplomatic relations with other countries.
According to this note, the act was created "by an illegal anti-Cuban
group that acts against constitutional order and that arouses the
repudiation of the people, with the collusion and financing of
politicians and foreign institutions."
The ceremony finally took place without the presence of the
international guests. "The chairs will remain empty" until the awardees
"can land in Havana" to pick them up in person, assured Rosa María
Payá. Other Cuban guests were prevented from leaving their homes or
arrested on the road.
Independent journalists Henry Constantin Ferreiro and Sol García Basulto
were detained in the airport of Camagüey at the moment that they tried
to board a flight towards the capital.
Constantín Ferreiro is vice-president of the Inter-American Press
Association for Cuba and remains in custody without his parents being
able to see him or provide him with personal hygiene supplies, according
to his father.
Havana's decision not to authorize the arrival of the head of the OAS
was known after a night of uncertainty in which it was not clear whether
Almagro had traveled to the Cuban capital, where he initially planned to
fly from Paris, where he had participated in institutional activities
yesterday. Rosa María Paya today called on the OAS to support the right
of the Cuban people to decide on their destiny.
"To the point that Cuba is democratizing, all democracies in Latin
America will also gain stability," said the opposition leader, who hoped
that "today is the beginning of an OAS commitment to the cause of rights
and freedom in Cuba."
She pointed out that they do not expect the OAS to "speak out against
anyone," but instead to put itself "on the side of all Cuban citizens in
their right to begin a transition process."
Source: Oswaldo Payá Award Ceremony Is Absent The Winners / 14ymedio,
EFE – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/oswaldo-paya-award-ceremony-is-absent-the-winners-14ymedio-efe/
A brave act in Cuba deserves American support
A brave act in Cuba deserves American support
By Editorial Board February 24 at 7:13 PM
BRINGING FREEDOM and democracy to totalitarian Cuba will be no easy
task. Two indispensable ingredients, though, must be courage on the part
of the country's dissidents and democrats, and international solidarity
with them.
Both were on display in Havana over the past week. At the center of
events was Rosa María Payá Acevedo, daughter of the late Oswaldo Payá, a
recipient of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for freedom of
thought who lost his life in a still-unexplained 2012 car crash. Ms.
Payá decided to pay tribute to her father by awarding a human rights
prize in his name and chose as the first recipient Luis Almagro, the
Uruguayan secretary general of the Organization of American States, who
has distinguished himself through forthright condemnation of repression
in Cuba's authoritarian ally Venezuela. Ms. Payá invited former Mexican
president Felipe Calderón, former Chilean education minister Mariana
Aylwin (daughter of a former president) and Martin Palous, a former
Czech ambassador to the United States, to attend.
Raúl Castro's regime blocked them all from entering the country, telling
Mr. Almagro that Ms. Payá's entirely peaceful program was "anti-Cuban
activity" and a "provocation." Officials also detained journalists
attempting to cover the planned ceremony, including Henry Constantin
Ferreiro, regional vice chairman of the Inter American Press
Association's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information. No
doubt Ms. Payá's unauthorized attempt to honor an international diplomat
before such distinguished company did present the regime with an awkward
choice: to tolerate an elementary exercise of her rights, and the rights
of her invitees, or to deny it, and incur international political
damage. How revealing of Havana's true nature, and true priorities, that
it chose the latter. Indeed, Cuba's foreign ministry said the crackdown
showed its determination not to "sacrifice its fundamental principles to
maintain appearances."
And how revealing of the limits of U.S. "engagement" with Cuba. While
these European and Latin American leaders were supporting Ms. Payá's
assertion of freedom, a bipartisan delegation of six members of
Congress, headed by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), were on a visit to Cuba,
promoting business ties. After a visit with Mr. Castro, Mr. Leahy
blandly observed that the dictator "wants reform to continue, he wants
the movement forwards to continue" despite President Trump's uncertain
attitude toward the island's government. Mr. Leahy's spokesman told us
that the delegation's schedule was too "packed" with appointments such
as the Castro meeting to allow for any contact with Ms. Payá, and
declined to comment, pro or con, on the regime's refusal to admit Mr.
Almagro and company.
To be sure, Mr. Trump is hardly the ideal spokesman for democracy
promotion, in Cuba or anywhere else. All the more reason that members of
Congress supply on America's behalf the solidarity Cuba's democrats
need, and all the more reason to be disappointed that Mr. Leahy and his
colleagues did not provide more of it.
Source: A brave act in Cuba deserves American support - The Washington
Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-brave-act-in-cuba-deserves-american-support/2017/02/24/576ca00a-f86f-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.8f90fc518797
By Editorial Board February 24 at 7:13 PM
BRINGING FREEDOM and democracy to totalitarian Cuba will be no easy
task. Two indispensable ingredients, though, must be courage on the part
of the country's dissidents and democrats, and international solidarity
with them.
Both were on display in Havana over the past week. At the center of
events was Rosa María Payá Acevedo, daughter of the late Oswaldo Payá, a
recipient of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for freedom of
thought who lost his life in a still-unexplained 2012 car crash. Ms.
Payá decided to pay tribute to her father by awarding a human rights
prize in his name and chose as the first recipient Luis Almagro, the
Uruguayan secretary general of the Organization of American States, who
has distinguished himself through forthright condemnation of repression
in Cuba's authoritarian ally Venezuela. Ms. Payá invited former Mexican
president Felipe Calderón, former Chilean education minister Mariana
Aylwin (daughter of a former president) and Martin Palous, a former
Czech ambassador to the United States, to attend.
Raúl Castro's regime blocked them all from entering the country, telling
Mr. Almagro that Ms. Payá's entirely peaceful program was "anti-Cuban
activity" and a "provocation." Officials also detained journalists
attempting to cover the planned ceremony, including Henry Constantin
Ferreiro, regional vice chairman of the Inter American Press
Association's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information. No
doubt Ms. Payá's unauthorized attempt to honor an international diplomat
before such distinguished company did present the regime with an awkward
choice: to tolerate an elementary exercise of her rights, and the rights
of her invitees, or to deny it, and incur international political
damage. How revealing of Havana's true nature, and true priorities, that
it chose the latter. Indeed, Cuba's foreign ministry said the crackdown
showed its determination not to "sacrifice its fundamental principles to
maintain appearances."
And how revealing of the limits of U.S. "engagement" with Cuba. While
these European and Latin American leaders were supporting Ms. Payá's
assertion of freedom, a bipartisan delegation of six members of
Congress, headed by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), were on a visit to Cuba,
promoting business ties. After a visit with Mr. Castro, Mr. Leahy
blandly observed that the dictator "wants reform to continue, he wants
the movement forwards to continue" despite President Trump's uncertain
attitude toward the island's government. Mr. Leahy's spokesman told us
that the delegation's schedule was too "packed" with appointments such
as the Castro meeting to allow for any contact with Ms. Payá, and
declined to comment, pro or con, on the regime's refusal to admit Mr.
Almagro and company.
To be sure, Mr. Trump is hardly the ideal spokesman for democracy
promotion, in Cuba or anywhere else. All the more reason that members of
Congress supply on America's behalf the solidarity Cuba's democrats
need, and all the more reason to be disappointed that Mr. Leahy and his
colleagues did not provide more of it.
Source: A brave act in Cuba deserves American support - The Washington
Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-brave-act-in-cuba-deserves-american-support/2017/02/24/576ca00a-f86f-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.8f90fc518797
Appeasement Never Works
Appeasement Never Works
by GEORGE WEIGEL February 25, 2017 4:00 AM
And it's making matters worse in Cuba.
At first blush, Luis Almagro would seem an unlikely candidate for the
disfavor of the current Cuban regime. A man of the political Left, he
took office as the tenth secretary general of the Organization of
American States in 2015, vowing to use his term of office to reduce
inequality throughout the hemisphere. Yet Secretary General Almagro was
recently denied a visa to enter Cuba. Why? Because he had been invited
to accept an award named in honor of Cuban democracy activist Oswaldo
Payá, who died in 2012 in an "automobile accident" that virtually
everyone not on the payroll of the Castro regime's security services
regards to this day as an act of state-sanctioned murder. Payá's "crime"
was to organize the Varela Project, a public campaign for basic civil
liberties and free elections on the island prison, and he paid for it
with his life.
The regime's refusal of a visa for the head of the OAS caused a brief
flurry of comment in those shrinking parts of the commentariat that
still pay attention to Cuba, now that Cuban relations with the United
States have been more or less "normalized." But there was another facet
of this nasty little episode that deserves further attention: While
Almagro's entry into Cuba was being blocked, a U.S. congressional
delegation was on the island and, insofar as is known, did nothing to
protest the Cuban government's punitive action against the secretary
general of the OAS.
According to a release from the office of Representative Jim McGovern
(D., Mass.), the CoDel, which also included Senators Patrick Leahy (D.,
Vt.), Thad Cochran (R., Miss.), Michael Bennet (D., Colo.), and Tom
Udall (D.,N.M.), and Representative Seth Moulton (D.,Mass.), intended to
"continue the progress begun by President Obama to bring U.S.–Cuba
relations into the 21st Century and explore new opportunities to promote
U.S. economic development with Cuba," including "economic opportunities
for American companies in the agriculture and health sectors." I've no
idea whether those economic goals were advanced by this junket. What was
certainly not advanced by the CoDel's public silence on the Almagro
Affair while they were in the country was the cause of a free Cuba.
There were and continue to be legitimate arguments on both sides of the
question of whether the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba should be lifted.
And those pushing for a full recission of the embargo are not simply
conscience-lite men and women with dollar signs in their eyes. They
include pro-democracy people who sincerely believe that flooding the
zone in Cuba with American products, American technology, and American
culture will so undermine the Castro regime that a process of
self-liberation will necessarily follow. That this seems not to have
been the case with China is a powerful counterargument. Meanwhile, my
own decidedly minority view — that the embargo should have been
gradually rolled back over the past decade and a half in exchange for
specific, concrete, and irreversible improvements in human rights and
the rule of law, leading to real political pluralization in Cuba — seems
to have fallen completely through the floorboards of the debate.
But as pressures to "normalize" U.S.–Cuba relations across the board
increase, there ought to be broad, bipartisan agreement that Cuban
repression, which has in fact intensified since the Obama initiative two
years ago, should have its costs. If, as Congressman McGovern averred,
he and others want to move Cuba–America relations into the 21st century,
then let him and others who share that goal agree that Cuba should be
treated like any other country: meaning that when it does bad things, it
gets hammered by criticism and pressures are brought to bear to induce
or compel better behavior in the future.
"Opening up" without pressure has never worked with Communist regimes.
It didn't work when the Vatican tried it in east-central Europe in the
1970s; the Ostpolitik of Pope Paul VI made matters worse for the
Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. It didn't work vis-à-vis
the Soviet Union in the years of détente, which coincided with some of
the worst Soviet assaults on human-rights activists. It hasn't worked
with China, where, as in Cuba, repression has increased in recent years.
To will the end — a 21st-century Cuba where the government behaves in a
civilized fashion and economic opportunity is available to all Cubans,
not just those favored by the regime — necessarily involves, at least
for morally and politically serious people, willing the means: which
must include holding the current Cuban regime to account when "opening
up" does not extend to basic civil liberties for the Cuban people, and
when "opening up" does not include a decent respect for the hemispheric
proprieties, such that the head of the OAS is summarily refused entry
into Cuba.
That the Almagro Affair had to do with an award named for Oswaldo Payá,
a true martyr in the cause of freedom who was inspired by Christian
Democratic convictions, suggests that the Castro regime and those who
wish to inherit its power are nervous. Authoritarians confident of their
position would not have reacted so stupidly to an award being given to a
left-leaning, Spanish-speaking, Latin American politician — unless, that
is, they were afraid that the memory of Oswaldo Payá would be rekindled
in the ceremony in which Almagro received the Payá Award. All the more
reason, then, for congressional delegations and others to end the
Neville Chamberlain routine, stop appeasing the Castro regime, and start
taking steps to ensure that what Congressman McGovern called "the
progress begun by President Obama" is, in fact, progress in Cuba — and
not just economic progress, but progress in human rights and the rule of
law.
— George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington's Ethics
and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in
Catholic Studies.
Source: Luis Almagro -- Cuba Blocks Visa for Oswaldo Paya Award |
National Review -
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445238/luis-almagro-cuba-blocks-visa-oswaldo-paya-award-organization-american-states
by GEORGE WEIGEL February 25, 2017 4:00 AM
And it's making matters worse in Cuba.
At first blush, Luis Almagro would seem an unlikely candidate for the
disfavor of the current Cuban regime. A man of the political Left, he
took office as the tenth secretary general of the Organization of
American States in 2015, vowing to use his term of office to reduce
inequality throughout the hemisphere. Yet Secretary General Almagro was
recently denied a visa to enter Cuba. Why? Because he had been invited
to accept an award named in honor of Cuban democracy activist Oswaldo
Payá, who died in 2012 in an "automobile accident" that virtually
everyone not on the payroll of the Castro regime's security services
regards to this day as an act of state-sanctioned murder. Payá's "crime"
was to organize the Varela Project, a public campaign for basic civil
liberties and free elections on the island prison, and he paid for it
with his life.
The regime's refusal of a visa for the head of the OAS caused a brief
flurry of comment in those shrinking parts of the commentariat that
still pay attention to Cuba, now that Cuban relations with the United
States have been more or less "normalized." But there was another facet
of this nasty little episode that deserves further attention: While
Almagro's entry into Cuba was being blocked, a U.S. congressional
delegation was on the island and, insofar as is known, did nothing to
protest the Cuban government's punitive action against the secretary
general of the OAS.
According to a release from the office of Representative Jim McGovern
(D., Mass.), the CoDel, which also included Senators Patrick Leahy (D.,
Vt.), Thad Cochran (R., Miss.), Michael Bennet (D., Colo.), and Tom
Udall (D.,N.M.), and Representative Seth Moulton (D.,Mass.), intended to
"continue the progress begun by President Obama to bring U.S.–Cuba
relations into the 21st Century and explore new opportunities to promote
U.S. economic development with Cuba," including "economic opportunities
for American companies in the agriculture and health sectors." I've no
idea whether those economic goals were advanced by this junket. What was
certainly not advanced by the CoDel's public silence on the Almagro
Affair while they were in the country was the cause of a free Cuba.
There were and continue to be legitimate arguments on both sides of the
question of whether the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba should be lifted.
And those pushing for a full recission of the embargo are not simply
conscience-lite men and women with dollar signs in their eyes. They
include pro-democracy people who sincerely believe that flooding the
zone in Cuba with American products, American technology, and American
culture will so undermine the Castro regime that a process of
self-liberation will necessarily follow. That this seems not to have
been the case with China is a powerful counterargument. Meanwhile, my
own decidedly minority view — that the embargo should have been
gradually rolled back over the past decade and a half in exchange for
specific, concrete, and irreversible improvements in human rights and
the rule of law, leading to real political pluralization in Cuba — seems
to have fallen completely through the floorboards of the debate.
But as pressures to "normalize" U.S.–Cuba relations across the board
increase, there ought to be broad, bipartisan agreement that Cuban
repression, which has in fact intensified since the Obama initiative two
years ago, should have its costs. If, as Congressman McGovern averred,
he and others want to move Cuba–America relations into the 21st century,
then let him and others who share that goal agree that Cuba should be
treated like any other country: meaning that when it does bad things, it
gets hammered by criticism and pressures are brought to bear to induce
or compel better behavior in the future.
"Opening up" without pressure has never worked with Communist regimes.
It didn't work when the Vatican tried it in east-central Europe in the
1970s; the Ostpolitik of Pope Paul VI made matters worse for the
Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. It didn't work vis-à-vis
the Soviet Union in the years of détente, which coincided with some of
the worst Soviet assaults on human-rights activists. It hasn't worked
with China, where, as in Cuba, repression has increased in recent years.
To will the end — a 21st-century Cuba where the government behaves in a
civilized fashion and economic opportunity is available to all Cubans,
not just those favored by the regime — necessarily involves, at least
for morally and politically serious people, willing the means: which
must include holding the current Cuban regime to account when "opening
up" does not extend to basic civil liberties for the Cuban people, and
when "opening up" does not include a decent respect for the hemispheric
proprieties, such that the head of the OAS is summarily refused entry
into Cuba.
That the Almagro Affair had to do with an award named for Oswaldo Payá,
a true martyr in the cause of freedom who was inspired by Christian
Democratic convictions, suggests that the Castro regime and those who
wish to inherit its power are nervous. Authoritarians confident of their
position would not have reacted so stupidly to an award being given to a
left-leaning, Spanish-speaking, Latin American politician — unless, that
is, they were afraid that the memory of Oswaldo Payá would be rekindled
in the ceremony in which Almagro received the Payá Award. All the more
reason, then, for congressional delegations and others to end the
Neville Chamberlain routine, stop appeasing the Castro regime, and start
taking steps to ensure that what Congressman McGovern called "the
progress begun by President Obama" is, in fact, progress in Cuba — and
not just economic progress, but progress in human rights and the rule of
law.
— George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington's Ethics
and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in
Catholic Studies.
Source: Luis Almagro -- Cuba Blocks Visa for Oswaldo Paya Award |
National Review -
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445238/luis-almagro-cuba-blocks-visa-oswaldo-paya-award-organization-american-states
ONE ISRAELI KILLED AND EIGHT INJURED IN CAR ACCIDENT IN CUBA
ONE ISRAELI KILLED AND EIGHT INJURED IN CAR ACCIDENT IN CUBA
BY LAURA SIGAL FEBRUARY 25, 2017 11:24
According to Israel Radio, the injured, all in their 60s, suffered from
minor to moderate injuries. One went though surgery overnight.
One Israeli, named as 70-year-old, Nahum Heinken from Gadera, was killed
and eight others were injured in Cuba when their mini bus flipped over,
the Foreign Ministry released Saturday morning.
According to Reshet Bet, the injured, all in their 60s, suffered from
minor to moderate injuries. One went though surgery overnight.
Israel and Cuba have no formal diplomatic ties, and Israel and relies on
the Canadian Embassy to take care of their interests in Cuba, including
helping to transfer the body to Israel, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Cuba is one of the four Latin American countries with which Israel does
not have formal diplomatic relations, along with Nicaragua, Venezuela
and Bolivia. Jerusalem had diplomatic relations with Cuba until 1973,
when Fidel Castro broke them off when he was running for president of
the Non-Aligned Movement.
Havana has since been a constant and bitter critic of Israel.
Despite the lack of formal relations, the people-to-people contacts
between the two countries have continued, especially in the health,
culture and agricultural fields. In addition, it is a destination for
Israeli tourists, Modi Ephraim, the head of the Foreign Ministry's Latin
America and Caribbean division, said in April 2016.
Herb Keinon contributed to this report.
Source: One Israeli killed and eight injured in car accident in Cuba -
Israel News - Jerusalem Post -
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/One-Israel-killed-and-eight-injured-in-car-accident-in-Cuba-482550
BY LAURA SIGAL FEBRUARY 25, 2017 11:24
According to Israel Radio, the injured, all in their 60s, suffered from
minor to moderate injuries. One went though surgery overnight.
One Israeli, named as 70-year-old, Nahum Heinken from Gadera, was killed
and eight others were injured in Cuba when their mini bus flipped over,
the Foreign Ministry released Saturday morning.
According to Reshet Bet, the injured, all in their 60s, suffered from
minor to moderate injuries. One went though surgery overnight.
Israel and Cuba have no formal diplomatic ties, and Israel and relies on
the Canadian Embassy to take care of their interests in Cuba, including
helping to transfer the body to Israel, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Cuba is one of the four Latin American countries with which Israel does
not have formal diplomatic relations, along with Nicaragua, Venezuela
and Bolivia. Jerusalem had diplomatic relations with Cuba until 1973,
when Fidel Castro broke them off when he was running for president of
the Non-Aligned Movement.
Havana has since been a constant and bitter critic of Israel.
Despite the lack of formal relations, the people-to-people contacts
between the two countries have continued, especially in the health,
culture and agricultural fields. In addition, it is a destination for
Israeli tourists, Modi Ephraim, the head of the Foreign Ministry's Latin
America and Caribbean division, said in April 2016.
Herb Keinon contributed to this report.
Source: One Israeli killed and eight injured in car accident in Cuba -
Israel News - Jerusalem Post -
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/One-Israel-killed-and-eight-injured-in-car-accident-in-Cuba-482550
Friday, February 24, 2017
Exile initiative aims to help hundreds of Cubans stranded in Mexico
Exile initiative aims to help hundreds of Cubans stranded in Mexico
BY ABEL FERNÁNDEZ
A group of exile organizations and volunteers are trying to help
hundreds of Cubans who are stranded in Mexico following the end of the
so-called "wet foot, dry foot" policy on Jan. 12.
Vigilia Mambisa, Democracy Movement, WWFE La Poderosa radio station and
other organizations and volunteers have set up a tent on Miami's Calle
Ocho at Southwest 13th Avenue, next to a monument dedicated to the Bay
of Pigs Invasion.
More than 4,000 pounds of food, personal hygiene products and other
donations have been collected so far. But much more is needed to fill a
tractor trailer headed to Mexico on Sunday.
"It's the people of the community who are mainly helping," said Ramón
Saúl Sánchez of the Democracy Movement. "They are arriving with clothes,
food, bedspreads, toiletries."
Miguel Saavedra, of the Vigilia Mambisa, said that "people from
different nationalities have come to make donations in solidarity with
the Cubans."
The donations will be transported in a 53-foot truck traveling by road
to a church in the border city of Laredo, Texas. The cargo will be
received by Sergio Pérez, a Cuban-American businessman who lives in Las
Vegas and who has organized similar operations elsewhere in the U.S.
Last month, Pérez temporarily closed his restaurant in Las Vegas, the
Florida Café, to gather donations for the stranded Cubans. Some 22 tons
of food and other basic necessities have been collected so far.
The supplies are transported from Laredo, Texas to several churches that
are assisting some 800 Cubans stranded in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Pérez
explained.
In late January, Cubans who were stranded in Mexico complained about the
"indifference of Cubans in Miami."
Pérez, who is flying to Miami on Saturday to finish the preparations for
the trip to Mexico, said the Cuban Club in California is also collecting
supplies for stranded Cubans.
The businessman said that he has noticed some "disunity"within the Cuban
community in exile and urged everyone to help the stranded Cubans.
"We need unity in the Cuban American community," he said.
Juan Cabrera, the owner and driver of the truck carrying the supplies,
said they need to raise about 40,000 pounds to fill the vehicle.
"I am doing this to help these Cubans because that's what my heart
dictates, because I went through the same thing," said Cabrera, who
himself was temporarily stranded in Bahamas in the 1990s.
"We need the support of the community," Cabrera said, adding that
donations also are being collected in Tampa and Orlando.
If organizers do not manage to fill the truck in Miami, Cabrera said he
will stop in Tampa and Orlando to load up more goods.
"This truck is going to leave full," Cabrera said.
FOLLOW ABEL FERNÁNDEZ ON TWITTER: @ABELFGLEZ
Source: Miami collects donations for Cubans stranded in Mexico | Miami
Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article134627544.html
BY ABEL FERNÁNDEZ
A group of exile organizations and volunteers are trying to help
hundreds of Cubans who are stranded in Mexico following the end of the
so-called "wet foot, dry foot" policy on Jan. 12.
Vigilia Mambisa, Democracy Movement, WWFE La Poderosa radio station and
other organizations and volunteers have set up a tent on Miami's Calle
Ocho at Southwest 13th Avenue, next to a monument dedicated to the Bay
of Pigs Invasion.
More than 4,000 pounds of food, personal hygiene products and other
donations have been collected so far. But much more is needed to fill a
tractor trailer headed to Mexico on Sunday.
"It's the people of the community who are mainly helping," said Ramón
Saúl Sánchez of the Democracy Movement. "They are arriving with clothes,
food, bedspreads, toiletries."
Miguel Saavedra, of the Vigilia Mambisa, said that "people from
different nationalities have come to make donations in solidarity with
the Cubans."
The donations will be transported in a 53-foot truck traveling by road
to a church in the border city of Laredo, Texas. The cargo will be
received by Sergio Pérez, a Cuban-American businessman who lives in Las
Vegas and who has organized similar operations elsewhere in the U.S.
Last month, Pérez temporarily closed his restaurant in Las Vegas, the
Florida Café, to gather donations for the stranded Cubans. Some 22 tons
of food and other basic necessities have been collected so far.
The supplies are transported from Laredo, Texas to several churches that
are assisting some 800 Cubans stranded in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Pérez
explained.
In late January, Cubans who were stranded in Mexico complained about the
"indifference of Cubans in Miami."
Pérez, who is flying to Miami on Saturday to finish the preparations for
the trip to Mexico, said the Cuban Club in California is also collecting
supplies for stranded Cubans.
The businessman said that he has noticed some "disunity"within the Cuban
community in exile and urged everyone to help the stranded Cubans.
"We need unity in the Cuban American community," he said.
Juan Cabrera, the owner and driver of the truck carrying the supplies,
said they need to raise about 40,000 pounds to fill the vehicle.
"I am doing this to help these Cubans because that's what my heart
dictates, because I went through the same thing," said Cabrera, who
himself was temporarily stranded in Bahamas in the 1990s.
"We need the support of the community," Cabrera said, adding that
donations also are being collected in Tampa and Orlando.
If organizers do not manage to fill the truck in Miami, Cabrera said he
will stop in Tampa and Orlando to load up more goods.
"This truck is going to leave full," Cabrera said.
FOLLOW ABEL FERNÁNDEZ ON TWITTER: @ABELFGLEZ
Source: Miami collects donations for Cubans stranded in Mexico | Miami
Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article134627544.html
After frequent price hikes, cost of visiting Cuba coming down
After frequent price hikes, cost of visiting Cuba coming down
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@miamiherald.com
American travelers checking into Cuban hotels and dining at Havana's
more upscale private restaurants since the U.S. rapprochement with Cuba
have experienced more than a bit of sticker shock.
Since the Obama administration's opening to Cuba allowed more Americans
to travel to the island most travel-related costs have jumped 100 to 400
percent, said Tom Popper, president of insightCuba, which organizes
tours to Cuba.
But what goes up usually comes down.
Mandated prices for state agencies and hotels are scheduled to drop for
the spring and summer seasons, said Popper. Different tour operators
receive their rates from the Cuban government at different times, but
Popper said the new prices quoted to insightCuba will result on average
in a $250 savings per traveler on a six- or seven-day trip this spring
and summer.
"The question was for how long were prices going to increase or stay at
artificially inflated levels," he said. "This is the first time we've
seen costs come down, instead of up, in three years."
The trend had been up, up, up.
Rates for standard rooms, which averaged around $150 a night at some
popular Havana hotels before the Obama opening, climbed to more than
$600 last year. A junior suite at the Hotel Saratoga is listed at $605 a
night during the first week of March. And the new Kempinski luxury
hotel, which is slated to open in Havana later this year, recently
announced that rates at the Gran Hotel Manzana would start at $600
during the November to March high season and at $400 from April to October.
Though bargains exist for the traveler willing to seek them out, many
visitors are surprised to find South Beach prices when they dine at some
of Havana's better paladares, or private restaurants.
"Prices are still incredibly high, given the quality of the offerings.
However, they have come down about 25 percent for March/April/May
compared to November/December of last year," said Collin Laverty,
president of Cuban Educational Travel, which organizes group travel to Cuba.
At Road Scholar, a nonprofit that offers educational travel programs,
demand has slowed a bit this year because of the high hotel prices, said
JoAnn Bell, senior vice president of program development. But she said,
"Americans continue to be fascinated by the prospect of traveling to Cuba."
A Road Scholar representative is currently in Cuba, she said,
renegotiating rates. "If successful, we will pass along any savings to
Road Scholar participants," Bell said.
There's a lot of talk about pricing among foreign hoteliers in Cuba,
said Bob Guild, vice president of Marazul, which offers tours and travel
arrangements to Cuba. "We see prices likely coming down in October (when
the next high season begins), and we are advising our clients of that,"
he said.
Guild said that a number of groups have canceled because of the high
prices, but others have come in and made up for it. Overall, he said,
Marazul hasn't experienced a drop in demand. "During the [winter] season
we've been running 100 groups a month," Guild said.
The price run-up began in 2015, said Popper, when the tourism minister
announced that hotel costs would go up 100 percent in the face of
overheating demand. "The intent of the price increases was not only to
get more revenue but also to tamp down demand. They couldn't keep up
with it," he said. Throughout 2015 and 2016, there were additional 15 to
20 percent price hikes.
Visitors are still coming to Cuba in record numbers, but tour operators
said a market correction was needed.
Cuban tourism officials are predicting that the number of international
visitors in 2017 will increase to 4.2 million, about 100,000 more than
last year. This January, the number of international visitors was up 15
percent, and the Ministry of Tourism is forecasting Cuba will finish the
high season with a 17 percent jump in international visitors.
Popper said he expects demand from the United States to cool off a bit
from the Obama heat wave when Americans rushed to take advantage of new
regulations that made it easier to travel to Cuba. They are permitted to
visit if they fall into 12 specific categories such as educational
travel, but aren't supposed to take trips to simply soak up the sun on
the beach.
284,937 Americans visited Cuba last year
Last year, 284,937 Americans visited Cuba, a 74 percent increase from
the previous year. Cuban Americans are counted in a separate category
for the Cuban diaspora, and they added nearly 330,000 to the total
number of visitors coming from the United States.
But it's possible that President Donald Trump, who has ordered a review
of all executive orders related to Cuba, could take action that would
affect U.S. travel to the island.
Last year, U.S. commercial airlines competed for the first regularly
scheduled routes to Cuba in more than five decades. Some airlines
received flight frequencies from the Department of Transportation that
would make sense only if travel to Cuba from the United States were
totally opened up and regular tourism permitted.
JetBlue recently decided to put smaller planes on its routes to Cuba,
and American Airlines cut its daily flights to Cuba from 13 to 10 in
mid-February. Silver Airways, which flies out of Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, also has reduced frequencies
on some of its Cuba routes.
"The airlines had no historical data whatsoever [on the Cuba market].
They made a huge guess," Popper said. "But all of them tried to gobble
up as much capacity as they could and now they are making adjustments."
Although passenger tallies out of some new gateways offering flights to
Cuba, such as Charlotte, are lagging, traffic to Cuba through Miami
International Airport is up since the first regularly scheduled flight
from MIA to Cuba took off on Sept. 7, 2016.
From Sept. 1, 2016, to Feb. 21 this year, total passengers coming or
going to Cuba through MIA increased from 466,213 during the previous
year to 620,592. The totals also include charter passengers.
620,592 passengers traveled through MIA coming or going to Cuba
The hotel price reductions are welcome.
On eight people-to-people tours planned by insightCuba for May through
October, prices will drop by $500 per couple, Popper said.
Other tour operators also have cut prices for trips during the latter
part of the year.
The League of Women Voters of Florida, which is organizing its 28th
people-to-people visit to Cuba since 2011, also recently reduced the
price of its May 22-28 trip by $400. Former state Rep. Annie Betancourt,
who will lead the trip, said the price reduction came from the tour
operator and she was unsure if it was related to lower hotel prices.
But she said travelers can still find accommodations in the $150 price
range at hotels such as the Sevilla, Presidente, Vedado and Florida. "We
usually plan these trips 6 to 8 months ahead of time," Betancourt said.
But demand is still such, she said, "that the hardest thing is getting
bookings for hotels."
Betancourt said she plans to recommend that the League consider putting
its travelers in casas particulares, private homes that offer rooms for
rent, on future trips. The casas generally cost from 20 CUC to 40 CUC
per night. For those exchanging U.S. dollars, that's about from $23 to
$46. Hotel accommodations outside the capital also are generally far
more economical than in Havana.
"Demand is still high," Laverty said. "However, travelers have started
to discover private homes, hostels, travel outside of Havana and other
ways to save money by not staying in overpriced hotels."
Private taxi drivers also jacked up prices, doubling fares for shorter
rides and charging 120 CUCs ($138) for an eight-hour shift.
But in early February the government imposed ceilings on fares for some
of the more popular fixed routes in Havana and said those who charged
more were in danger of losing their licenses.
Instead of improving the situation, it created traffic chaos, with some
drivers taking their cars off the road in protest and others saying they
could no longer earn a living with the price caps. Gasoline is in short
supply, and some of the drivers had been relying on higher-priced black
market gas and passing that increase on to their customers.
The result of the price caps: fewer taxis on the road and longer waits.
Some drivers also have refused to pick up passengers unless they want to
travel entire routes.
"This doesn't really affect tourists, who don't take route taxis on a
regular basis, but it has certainly made it difficult for Cubans who are
accustomed to taking shared taxis," Laverty said. "Not only did they put
price controls on that are below market rates, but they restricted
drivers that don't have Havana addresses from working in Havana, further
limiting supply."
FOLLOW MIMI WHITEFIELD ON TWITTER: @HERALDMIMI
Source: Overheated hotel prices in Cuba start to come down | Miami
Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article134586559.html
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@miamiherald.com
American travelers checking into Cuban hotels and dining at Havana's
more upscale private restaurants since the U.S. rapprochement with Cuba
have experienced more than a bit of sticker shock.
Since the Obama administration's opening to Cuba allowed more Americans
to travel to the island most travel-related costs have jumped 100 to 400
percent, said Tom Popper, president of insightCuba, which organizes
tours to Cuba.
But what goes up usually comes down.
Mandated prices for state agencies and hotels are scheduled to drop for
the spring and summer seasons, said Popper. Different tour operators
receive their rates from the Cuban government at different times, but
Popper said the new prices quoted to insightCuba will result on average
in a $250 savings per traveler on a six- or seven-day trip this spring
and summer.
"The question was for how long were prices going to increase or stay at
artificially inflated levels," he said. "This is the first time we've
seen costs come down, instead of up, in three years."
The trend had been up, up, up.
Rates for standard rooms, which averaged around $150 a night at some
popular Havana hotels before the Obama opening, climbed to more than
$600 last year. A junior suite at the Hotel Saratoga is listed at $605 a
night during the first week of March. And the new Kempinski luxury
hotel, which is slated to open in Havana later this year, recently
announced that rates at the Gran Hotel Manzana would start at $600
during the November to March high season and at $400 from April to October.
Though bargains exist for the traveler willing to seek them out, many
visitors are surprised to find South Beach prices when they dine at some
of Havana's better paladares, or private restaurants.
"Prices are still incredibly high, given the quality of the offerings.
However, they have come down about 25 percent for March/April/May
compared to November/December of last year," said Collin Laverty,
president of Cuban Educational Travel, which organizes group travel to Cuba.
At Road Scholar, a nonprofit that offers educational travel programs,
demand has slowed a bit this year because of the high hotel prices, said
JoAnn Bell, senior vice president of program development. But she said,
"Americans continue to be fascinated by the prospect of traveling to Cuba."
A Road Scholar representative is currently in Cuba, she said,
renegotiating rates. "If successful, we will pass along any savings to
Road Scholar participants," Bell said.
There's a lot of talk about pricing among foreign hoteliers in Cuba,
said Bob Guild, vice president of Marazul, which offers tours and travel
arrangements to Cuba. "We see prices likely coming down in October (when
the next high season begins), and we are advising our clients of that,"
he said.
Guild said that a number of groups have canceled because of the high
prices, but others have come in and made up for it. Overall, he said,
Marazul hasn't experienced a drop in demand. "During the [winter] season
we've been running 100 groups a month," Guild said.
The price run-up began in 2015, said Popper, when the tourism minister
announced that hotel costs would go up 100 percent in the face of
overheating demand. "The intent of the price increases was not only to
get more revenue but also to tamp down demand. They couldn't keep up
with it," he said. Throughout 2015 and 2016, there were additional 15 to
20 percent price hikes.
Visitors are still coming to Cuba in record numbers, but tour operators
said a market correction was needed.
Cuban tourism officials are predicting that the number of international
visitors in 2017 will increase to 4.2 million, about 100,000 more than
last year. This January, the number of international visitors was up 15
percent, and the Ministry of Tourism is forecasting Cuba will finish the
high season with a 17 percent jump in international visitors.
Popper said he expects demand from the United States to cool off a bit
from the Obama heat wave when Americans rushed to take advantage of new
regulations that made it easier to travel to Cuba. They are permitted to
visit if they fall into 12 specific categories such as educational
travel, but aren't supposed to take trips to simply soak up the sun on
the beach.
284,937 Americans visited Cuba last year
Last year, 284,937 Americans visited Cuba, a 74 percent increase from
the previous year. Cuban Americans are counted in a separate category
for the Cuban diaspora, and they added nearly 330,000 to the total
number of visitors coming from the United States.
But it's possible that President Donald Trump, who has ordered a review
of all executive orders related to Cuba, could take action that would
affect U.S. travel to the island.
Last year, U.S. commercial airlines competed for the first regularly
scheduled routes to Cuba in more than five decades. Some airlines
received flight frequencies from the Department of Transportation that
would make sense only if travel to Cuba from the United States were
totally opened up and regular tourism permitted.
JetBlue recently decided to put smaller planes on its routes to Cuba,
and American Airlines cut its daily flights to Cuba from 13 to 10 in
mid-February. Silver Airways, which flies out of Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, also has reduced frequencies
on some of its Cuba routes.
"The airlines had no historical data whatsoever [on the Cuba market].
They made a huge guess," Popper said. "But all of them tried to gobble
up as much capacity as they could and now they are making adjustments."
Although passenger tallies out of some new gateways offering flights to
Cuba, such as Charlotte, are lagging, traffic to Cuba through Miami
International Airport is up since the first regularly scheduled flight
from MIA to Cuba took off on Sept. 7, 2016.
From Sept. 1, 2016, to Feb. 21 this year, total passengers coming or
going to Cuba through MIA increased from 466,213 during the previous
year to 620,592. The totals also include charter passengers.
620,592 passengers traveled through MIA coming or going to Cuba
The hotel price reductions are welcome.
On eight people-to-people tours planned by insightCuba for May through
October, prices will drop by $500 per couple, Popper said.
Other tour operators also have cut prices for trips during the latter
part of the year.
The League of Women Voters of Florida, which is organizing its 28th
people-to-people visit to Cuba since 2011, also recently reduced the
price of its May 22-28 trip by $400. Former state Rep. Annie Betancourt,
who will lead the trip, said the price reduction came from the tour
operator and she was unsure if it was related to lower hotel prices.
But she said travelers can still find accommodations in the $150 price
range at hotels such as the Sevilla, Presidente, Vedado and Florida. "We
usually plan these trips 6 to 8 months ahead of time," Betancourt said.
But demand is still such, she said, "that the hardest thing is getting
bookings for hotels."
Betancourt said she plans to recommend that the League consider putting
its travelers in casas particulares, private homes that offer rooms for
rent, on future trips. The casas generally cost from 20 CUC to 40 CUC
per night. For those exchanging U.S. dollars, that's about from $23 to
$46. Hotel accommodations outside the capital also are generally far
more economical than in Havana.
"Demand is still high," Laverty said. "However, travelers have started
to discover private homes, hostels, travel outside of Havana and other
ways to save money by not staying in overpriced hotels."
Private taxi drivers also jacked up prices, doubling fares for shorter
rides and charging 120 CUCs ($138) for an eight-hour shift.
But in early February the government imposed ceilings on fares for some
of the more popular fixed routes in Havana and said those who charged
more were in danger of losing their licenses.
Instead of improving the situation, it created traffic chaos, with some
drivers taking their cars off the road in protest and others saying they
could no longer earn a living with the price caps. Gasoline is in short
supply, and some of the drivers had been relying on higher-priced black
market gas and passing that increase on to their customers.
The result of the price caps: fewer taxis on the road and longer waits.
Some drivers also have refused to pick up passengers unless they want to
travel entire routes.
"This doesn't really affect tourists, who don't take route taxis on a
regular basis, but it has certainly made it difficult for Cubans who are
accustomed to taking shared taxis," Laverty said. "Not only did they put
price controls on that are below market rates, but they restricted
drivers that don't have Havana addresses from working in Havana, further
limiting supply."
FOLLOW MIMI WHITEFIELD ON TWITTER: @HERALDMIMI
Source: Overheated hotel prices in Cuba start to come down | Miami
Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article134586559.html
Rosa María Payá and Castroism's fear
Editorial: Rosa María Payá and Castroism's fear
DDC | Madrid | 23 de Febrero de 2017 - 12:37 CET.
In Havana, Rosa María Payá, President of the Latin American Youth
Network for Democracy, was going to bestow the Oswaldo Payá Freedom and
Life Award on Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the OAS, and to honor
late Chilean President Patricio Aylwin, represented by his daughter,
former minister and ex-representative Mariana Aylwin.
In 2002 Oswaldo Payá submitted 11,020 signatures to the Cuban National
Assembly and, in 2004, 14,000 additional ones demanding the freedom of
association, the freedom of speech and press, free elections, and
amnesty for political prisoners. Securing the support of such a large
number of people under circumstances like Cuba's entailed a complex
mobilization effort headed up by the leader of the Varela Project, the
largest undertaken by the democratic opposition in Cuba.
The response of the National Assembly to this request resulted in a
modification of the Constitution, with socialism being described as
"irreversible" in Cuba.
Oswaldo Payá perished on July 22, 2012 on a road near Bayamo. His family
reported that the car he was traveling in was hit by a State Security
vehicle. The circumstances of his death remain unclear. The regime has
never allowed an investigation by international experts, and sought to
close the case with a farcical trial.
Thereafter, while upholding her father and his legacy, Rosa María Payá
has continued her struggle for the democratization of Cuba, framing it
in a continental context. This has helped to overturn the tendency to
approach Cuba separately, as unique exception, in the region. Payá has
shown solidarity with the causes and challenges facing youth and
activists from other countries, obtaining the same in return.
The result of this has been a wave of condemnations and expressions of
solidarity from figures such as former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, and former presidents Sebastián Piñera (Chile) and Felipe
Calderón (Mexico), to the obstacles placed by the regime against the
awards ceremony, to be held in Havana. Once again Castroism has shown
that it is, irreversibly, a dictatorship. Denying entry to the Secretary
General of the OAS and other international invitees merely evidences its
desperation and fear.
Source: Editorial: Rosa María Payá and Castroism's fear | Diario de Cuba
- http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1487849877_29173.html
DDC | Madrid | 23 de Febrero de 2017 - 12:37 CET.
In Havana, Rosa María Payá, President of the Latin American Youth
Network for Democracy, was going to bestow the Oswaldo Payá Freedom and
Life Award on Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the OAS, and to honor
late Chilean President Patricio Aylwin, represented by his daughter,
former minister and ex-representative Mariana Aylwin.
In 2002 Oswaldo Payá submitted 11,020 signatures to the Cuban National
Assembly and, in 2004, 14,000 additional ones demanding the freedom of
association, the freedom of speech and press, free elections, and
amnesty for political prisoners. Securing the support of such a large
number of people under circumstances like Cuba's entailed a complex
mobilization effort headed up by the leader of the Varela Project, the
largest undertaken by the democratic opposition in Cuba.
The response of the National Assembly to this request resulted in a
modification of the Constitution, with socialism being described as
"irreversible" in Cuba.
Oswaldo Payá perished on July 22, 2012 on a road near Bayamo. His family
reported that the car he was traveling in was hit by a State Security
vehicle. The circumstances of his death remain unclear. The regime has
never allowed an investigation by international experts, and sought to
close the case with a farcical trial.
Thereafter, while upholding her father and his legacy, Rosa María Payá
has continued her struggle for the democratization of Cuba, framing it
in a continental context. This has helped to overturn the tendency to
approach Cuba separately, as unique exception, in the region. Payá has
shown solidarity with the causes and challenges facing youth and
activists from other countries, obtaining the same in return.
The result of this has been a wave of condemnations and expressions of
solidarity from figures such as former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, and former presidents Sebastián Piñera (Chile) and Felipe
Calderón (Mexico), to the obstacles placed by the regime against the
awards ceremony, to be held in Havana. Once again Castroism has shown
that it is, irreversibly, a dictatorship. Denying entry to the Secretary
General of the OAS and other international invitees merely evidences its
desperation and fear.
Source: Editorial: Rosa María Payá and Castroism's fear | Diario de Cuba
- http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1487849877_29173.html
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Cuba says it foiled plot to destabilize country, slams dissidents and OAS
Cuba says it foiled plot to destabilize country, slams dissidents and OAS
By Sarah Marsh and Nelson Acosta | HAVANA
Communist-ruled Cuba on Wednesday said it had foiled a serious plot
aiming to destabilize the country by preventing the chief of the
Organization of American States traveling to the island to attend an
award ceremony organized by dissidents.
The opposition group, which the government called "anti-Cuban and
illegal," had invited OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro to Havana to
honor him for shining a light on violations of human rights in the Americas.
Cuba, which views the Washington-based OAS as an imperialist instrument
of the United States despite its fledgling detente with its Cold War
foe, denied Almagro and other international invitees visas and issued a
blistering statement.
The incident comes at an awkward time as U.S. President Donald Trump
considers whether to continue normalizing relations with the Caribbean
island.
"The plan ... consisted of mounting in Havana an open and serious
provocation against the Cuban government, generating internal
instability, damaging the country's international reputation," the
statement by the foreign ministry read.
The ministry accused Almagro of "an ambition agenda of auto promotion
with attacks against progressive governments like those of Venezuela,
Bolivia and Ecuador."
In a letter to the dissidents, Almagro said he had assured the Cuban
authorities he did not have an anti-Cuban agenda.
The OAS's only interest was to "help move Cuba closer to the values and
principles upheld by the organization in relation to democracy and human
rights," he said.
Cuba had earlier prevented other international invitees, including a
former Chilean minister and an ex-president of Mexico, from traveling to
Cuba to attend the award ceremony, stoking tensions across Latin America.
Chile said it was recalling its ambassador to Cuba for consultation
while Mexico's foreign ministry said on its Twitter account that it
"regretted" Cuba's decision.
The Cuban foreign ministry defended its move as "impeccable act of
transparency," saying it had contacted the countries from which invitees
were traveling to inform them of the plot, hoping they could be
dissuaded from traveling.
"There was no lack of declarations by defenders of the false persecuted,
allies of past dictatorships and unemployed politicians willing to ally
themselves with vulgar mercenaries in the service of foreign interests,"
the ministry said.
The dissident group that had organized the award ceremony is led by the
daughter of late democracy activist Oswaldo Paya, who died in a 2012 car
accident. Rosa Maria Paya accuses the Cuban government of causing the
crash, a charge it denies.
Paya went ahead with the ceremony on Wednesday in the Paya family home
in Havana as planned, although she said she would keep his prize until
he could pick it up in person.
That looks unlikely to happen soon. In its statement on the events, Cuba
denounced a recent neo-liberal, imperialist offensive against certain
Latin American countries that had plunged millions back into poverty.
"Where has the OAS been, that has always kept a complicit silence facing
these realities?" the ministry asked, reiterating that Cuba would never
rejoin the organization.
Fidel Castro, a leading Cold War figure who built a communist state on
the doorstep of the United States and defied U.S. attempts to topple
him, died in November at the age of 90, eight years after handing the
presidency over to his younger brother, Raul.
(Additional Reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Nick
Macfie)
Source: Cuba says it foiled plot to destabilize country, slams
dissidents and OAS | Reuters -
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-dissidents-idUSKBN1620A6
By Sarah Marsh and Nelson Acosta | HAVANA
Communist-ruled Cuba on Wednesday said it had foiled a serious plot
aiming to destabilize the country by preventing the chief of the
Organization of American States traveling to the island to attend an
award ceremony organized by dissidents.
The opposition group, which the government called "anti-Cuban and
illegal," had invited OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro to Havana to
honor him for shining a light on violations of human rights in the Americas.
Cuba, which views the Washington-based OAS as an imperialist instrument
of the United States despite its fledgling detente with its Cold War
foe, denied Almagro and other international invitees visas and issued a
blistering statement.
The incident comes at an awkward time as U.S. President Donald Trump
considers whether to continue normalizing relations with the Caribbean
island.
"The plan ... consisted of mounting in Havana an open and serious
provocation against the Cuban government, generating internal
instability, damaging the country's international reputation," the
statement by the foreign ministry read.
The ministry accused Almagro of "an ambition agenda of auto promotion
with attacks against progressive governments like those of Venezuela,
Bolivia and Ecuador."
In a letter to the dissidents, Almagro said he had assured the Cuban
authorities he did not have an anti-Cuban agenda.
The OAS's only interest was to "help move Cuba closer to the values and
principles upheld by the organization in relation to democracy and human
rights," he said.
Cuba had earlier prevented other international invitees, including a
former Chilean minister and an ex-president of Mexico, from traveling to
Cuba to attend the award ceremony, stoking tensions across Latin America.
Chile said it was recalling its ambassador to Cuba for consultation
while Mexico's foreign ministry said on its Twitter account that it
"regretted" Cuba's decision.
The Cuban foreign ministry defended its move as "impeccable act of
transparency," saying it had contacted the countries from which invitees
were traveling to inform them of the plot, hoping they could be
dissuaded from traveling.
"There was no lack of declarations by defenders of the false persecuted,
allies of past dictatorships and unemployed politicians willing to ally
themselves with vulgar mercenaries in the service of foreign interests,"
the ministry said.
The dissident group that had organized the award ceremony is led by the
daughter of late democracy activist Oswaldo Paya, who died in a 2012 car
accident. Rosa Maria Paya accuses the Cuban government of causing the
crash, a charge it denies.
Paya went ahead with the ceremony on Wednesday in the Paya family home
in Havana as planned, although she said she would keep his prize until
he could pick it up in person.
That looks unlikely to happen soon. In its statement on the events, Cuba
denounced a recent neo-liberal, imperialist offensive against certain
Latin American countries that had plunged millions back into poverty.
"Where has the OAS been, that has always kept a complicit silence facing
these realities?" the ministry asked, reiterating that Cuba would never
rejoin the organization.
Fidel Castro, a leading Cold War figure who built a communist state on
the doorstep of the United States and defied U.S. attempts to topple
him, died in November at the age of 90, eight years after handing the
presidency over to his younger brother, Raul.
(Additional Reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Nick
Macfie)
Source: Cuba says it foiled plot to destabilize country, slams
dissidents and OAS | Reuters -
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-dissidents-idUSKBN1620A6
U.S. senators say Cuba's Castro keen to continue detente
U.S. senators say Cuba's Castro keen to continue detente
By Sarah Marsh | HAVANA
Cuban President Raul Castro made it clear to a visiting U.S.
congressional delegation that his country was intent on pursuing market
reform and detente with the United States, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy
told a news conference on Wednesday.
Leahy, a Democrat who has been key in efforts to normalize relations,
was leading a bipartisan group of five U.S. senators and a
representative on a three-day visit to the Communist-run island to
discuss ties and explore business opportunities.
Cuba watchers are looking closely for signs of how the fragile U.S.
detente with Cuba will fare under Republican President Donald Trump, who
has threatened to backtrack on it if he does not get "a better deal."
Analysts say Cuba has played its cards well so far by not responding
shrilly to such provocation and demonstrating its continued willingness
to engage under the new president.
Castro "wants reform to continue, he wants the movement forwards to
continue," said Leahy at the news conference in the U.S. embassy, after
meeting with the Cuban president on Tuesday. "The number of people he
had from his administration talk to us made it very clear they want us
to continue."
The delegation met with Cuba's foreign, trade and agriculture ministers
as well as with Castro.
The group included Republican Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi who on
Monday oversaw the signing of agreements between Cuba and two
Mississippi ports.
"Increasingly this issue of normalizing relations with Cuba is
bipartisan, this isn't just Democrats, there are a lot of Republicans
that believe we ought to do this as well," said Representative James
McGovern, a Democrat.
Support for the detente was also growing among the business and academic
communities, said McGovern, who was traveling with a group of U.S.
biotech experts keen to explore the sector in Cuba.
"The movement is more significant in the U.S.A. today than at any time
in my career in the Senate," said Leahy. "And I am the dean of the
Senate, I have been there the longest," added Leahy, who was first
elected to the Senate in 1974.
The White House said earlier this month that the Trump administration
was in the midst of "a full review of all U.S. policies towards Cuba."
The visit came as a diplomatic incident highlighted continuing concerns
about restrictions on human rights on the island.
Cuban authorities prevented the head of the Organization of American
States (OAS), a former Chilean minister and an ex-president of Mexico
from traveling to Cuba to attend an award ceremony on Wednesday hosted
by dissidents.
Cuba opposes anything that legitimizes dissidents, who it claims are
mercenaries funded by foreign interests. It also views the OAS as an
imperialist instrument of the United States.
OAS chief Luis Almagro reported that Cuban authorities said they were
"astonished" at his involvement in "anti-Cuban activities" which were
"an unacceptable provocation."
A U.S. embassy official attended the ceremony, organized by the Latin
American Network of Youth for Democracy, a group opposed to the
Communist government. Almagro's seat was left empty in symbolic protest.
"It may not be the smoothest of paths but it will continue," Leahy said
of the U.S.-Cuban detente. "I would not be here today on one more trip
if I didn't think that continuation of that progress is inevitable."
(Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta in Havana and Lesley Wroughton in
Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Source: U.S. senators say Cuba's Castro keen to continue detente |
Reuters - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-idUSKBN1612O5
By Sarah Marsh | HAVANA
Cuban President Raul Castro made it clear to a visiting U.S.
congressional delegation that his country was intent on pursuing market
reform and detente with the United States, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy
told a news conference on Wednesday.
Leahy, a Democrat who has been key in efforts to normalize relations,
was leading a bipartisan group of five U.S. senators and a
representative on a three-day visit to the Communist-run island to
discuss ties and explore business opportunities.
Cuba watchers are looking closely for signs of how the fragile U.S.
detente with Cuba will fare under Republican President Donald Trump, who
has threatened to backtrack on it if he does not get "a better deal."
Analysts say Cuba has played its cards well so far by not responding
shrilly to such provocation and demonstrating its continued willingness
to engage under the new president.
Castro "wants reform to continue, he wants the movement forwards to
continue," said Leahy at the news conference in the U.S. embassy, after
meeting with the Cuban president on Tuesday. "The number of people he
had from his administration talk to us made it very clear they want us
to continue."
The delegation met with Cuba's foreign, trade and agriculture ministers
as well as with Castro.
The group included Republican Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi who on
Monday oversaw the signing of agreements between Cuba and two
Mississippi ports.
"Increasingly this issue of normalizing relations with Cuba is
bipartisan, this isn't just Democrats, there are a lot of Republicans
that believe we ought to do this as well," said Representative James
McGovern, a Democrat.
Support for the detente was also growing among the business and academic
communities, said McGovern, who was traveling with a group of U.S.
biotech experts keen to explore the sector in Cuba.
"The movement is more significant in the U.S.A. today than at any time
in my career in the Senate," said Leahy. "And I am the dean of the
Senate, I have been there the longest," added Leahy, who was first
elected to the Senate in 1974.
The White House said earlier this month that the Trump administration
was in the midst of "a full review of all U.S. policies towards Cuba."
The visit came as a diplomatic incident highlighted continuing concerns
about restrictions on human rights on the island.
Cuban authorities prevented the head of the Organization of American
States (OAS), a former Chilean minister and an ex-president of Mexico
from traveling to Cuba to attend an award ceremony on Wednesday hosted
by dissidents.
Cuba opposes anything that legitimizes dissidents, who it claims are
mercenaries funded by foreign interests. It also views the OAS as an
imperialist instrument of the United States.
OAS chief Luis Almagro reported that Cuban authorities said they were
"astonished" at his involvement in "anti-Cuban activities" which were
"an unacceptable provocation."
A U.S. embassy official attended the ceremony, organized by the Latin
American Network of Youth for Democracy, a group opposed to the
Communist government. Almagro's seat was left empty in symbolic protest.
"It may not be the smoothest of paths but it will continue," Leahy said
of the U.S.-Cuban detente. "I would not be here today on one more trip
if I didn't think that continuation of that progress is inevitable."
(Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta in Havana and Lesley Wroughton in
Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Source: U.S. senators say Cuba's Castro keen to continue detente |
Reuters - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-usa-idUSKBN1612O5
Cuba Blocks Chilean Student from Entry for Award Ceremony Honoring Dissident
Cuba Blocks Chilean Student from Entry for Award Ceremony Honoring Dissident
BY: SABRINA MARTÍN - @SABRINAMARTINR - FEB 22, 2017, 12:21 PM
Cuba removed a Chilean student leader from Cuba hoping to attend an
award ceremony dedicated to Cuban political activist Oswaldo Payá.
Juan Carlos Vargas, a former student at the Central University of Chile
and member of the executive board of the Latin American Youth and
Democracy Network that was hosting the ceremony, was removed from the
island not long after the daughter of former Chilean President Patricio
Aylwin, Matiana Aylwin, was also prevented from flying there this week
for the same event.
Vargas was reportedly arrested in Cuba once he arrived on the island.
Authorities held him with no access to a phone call or other communication.
Read More: Meet Guillermo Lasso, Ecuador's Best Hope to End a Decade of
Socialist Rule
Read More: Uncertainty in Ecuador as Votes Trickle in, Opposition
Confident in Second Round
A similar incident took place to former Mexican President Felipe
Calderón, who Cuban authorities did not allow to enter the island.
He had planned to attend the award ceremony organized by the Latin
American Youth and Democracy Network.
Local media reported that Vargas was received by the Cuban Police as
well as a group of cameramen who appeared to be part of state-approved
press.
Authorities took away his passport and boarded him on a plane to Panama,
where he expects to return to Chile soon. However, he reportedly has not
yet recovered his identification.
Vargas was supposed to place the Oswaldo Payá award in Matiana Aylwin's
hands, but now the ceremony will have to be rescheduled and relocated.
Source: El Demócrata
Source: Cuba Blocks Chilean Student from Entry for Award Ceremony
Honoring Dissident -
https://panampost.com/sabrina-martin/2017/02/22/cuba-blocks-chilean-student-from-entry-for-award-ceremony-honoring-dissident/
BY: SABRINA MARTÍN - @SABRINAMARTINR - FEB 22, 2017, 12:21 PM
Cuba removed a Chilean student leader from Cuba hoping to attend an
award ceremony dedicated to Cuban political activist Oswaldo Payá.
Juan Carlos Vargas, a former student at the Central University of Chile
and member of the executive board of the Latin American Youth and
Democracy Network that was hosting the ceremony, was removed from the
island not long after the daughter of former Chilean President Patricio
Aylwin, Matiana Aylwin, was also prevented from flying there this week
for the same event.
Vargas was reportedly arrested in Cuba once he arrived on the island.
Authorities held him with no access to a phone call or other communication.
Read More: Meet Guillermo Lasso, Ecuador's Best Hope to End a Decade of
Socialist Rule
Read More: Uncertainty in Ecuador as Votes Trickle in, Opposition
Confident in Second Round
A similar incident took place to former Mexican President Felipe
Calderón, who Cuban authorities did not allow to enter the island.
He had planned to attend the award ceremony organized by the Latin
American Youth and Democracy Network.
Local media reported that Vargas was received by the Cuban Police as
well as a group of cameramen who appeared to be part of state-approved
press.
Authorities took away his passport and boarded him on a plane to Panama,
where he expects to return to Chile soon. However, he reportedly has not
yet recovered his identification.
Vargas was supposed to place the Oswaldo Payá award in Matiana Aylwin's
hands, but now the ceremony will have to be rescheduled and relocated.
Source: El Demócrata
Source: Cuba Blocks Chilean Student from Entry for Award Ceremony
Honoring Dissident -
https://panampost.com/sabrina-martin/2017/02/22/cuba-blocks-chilean-student-from-entry-for-award-ceremony-honoring-dissident/
Cuba Needs Responsible Water Usage
Cuba Needs Responsible Water Usage
February 23, 2017
By Fernando Ravsberg
HAVANA TIMES – The drought in Cuba could stop being a crisis and become
a chronic disease, as is already the case in many other countries. The
only way out seems to be to devise a global strategy that allows us and
requires a responsible use of that natural resource.
However, the Cuban parliament postponed the debate on a water use law,
despite the fact that the main economic areas of the economy involve
greater use of water without specific policies to confront the huge
losses in the distribution pipes and at homes that equals half of what
is pumped.
The government is committed to increasing food production to reduce
imports but agriculture is precisely the activity that consumes the most
water. Logically, as the land under cultivation grows, water consumption
increases.
According to some specialists, it is not a matter of reducing food
production but of establishing irrigation protocols for each crop,
preventing waste. This, in addition to creating storage mechanisms for
as much rainwater as possible on the farms.
Much of Cuba's land is extremely compacted, which means poor drainage
into the subsoil. This, added to the high temperatures, causes that a
part of the scarce rains that fall in the national territory evaporate
almost immediately.
The other major consumer of water is tourism. A foreign visitor staying
at a hotel uses about 350 liters of water daily. This means that the 4
million tourists who arrive on the island consume a minimum of 1.4
billion liters each day.
The economy cannot do without tourism, but hotels can be required to
install water recycling equipment and irrigate green areas at the first
or last hours of the day and not at noon, which is when the greatest
evaporation is caused.
One should also think about future development plans, especially the
desirability or not of creating numerous golf courses, bearing in mind
that, while they can produce a lot of money, they are very high
consumers of fresh water.
Another major obstacle to a responsible use of water is the leaks in the
distribution networks and in homes. According to the Institute of
Hydraulic Resources, about 45% of what is pumped is lost. This situation
causes ecological, economic and health problems.
In addition to losing the vital liquid to the leaks, twice the effort is
necessary for the pumping, consuming double the amount of fuel oil.
Likewise they water company must add large amounts of chlorine to the
water to attack what can enter the system through the leaky pipes. The
country spends a lot and provides the consumer with a product with more
chemicals than is recommended.
Although the government has already begun work, the cost of repairing
the distribution networks is enormous, a task that the national economy
may not be able to finance alone. Virtually everything needs to be
replaced because closing the leaks multiplies the pressure on the old
pipes, opening many new leaks.
There are also leaks inside the dwellings, which will not be fixed while
the cost of a faucet is equal to the monthly salary of a worker. A few
years ago in Havana repairs were made free of charge for 2,500
dwellings. Maybe that path is cheaper in the long run.
The scarcity of water is not a simple issue; I would not dare to bet on
solutions because I do not have the necessary knowledge, what's more I
think nobody has them. It is a matter to analyze in a diverse scientific
group that studies all the angles.
The Cuban media have already started talking about drought, which is a
very positive step because it allows the population to visualize and
become aware of the problem. However, given its seriousness, perhaps it
should have a greater media presence.
In contrast, the country continues to take superficial and contradictory
measures. While prohibiting the construction of swimming pools they
supply water to all public fountains, prioritizing urban aesthetics over
protection of an increasingly scarce natural resource.
There is a need for a national strategy that looks for resources to
change the distribution networks and incorporates the problem into all
economic projects. It must also include sealing the domestic leaks and
creates a culture of saving in the population, because no scarcity will
be as terrible as that of water.
Source: Cuba Needs Responsible Water Usage - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=123830
February 23, 2017
By Fernando Ravsberg
HAVANA TIMES – The drought in Cuba could stop being a crisis and become
a chronic disease, as is already the case in many other countries. The
only way out seems to be to devise a global strategy that allows us and
requires a responsible use of that natural resource.
However, the Cuban parliament postponed the debate on a water use law,
despite the fact that the main economic areas of the economy involve
greater use of water without specific policies to confront the huge
losses in the distribution pipes and at homes that equals half of what
is pumped.
The government is committed to increasing food production to reduce
imports but agriculture is precisely the activity that consumes the most
water. Logically, as the land under cultivation grows, water consumption
increases.
According to some specialists, it is not a matter of reducing food
production but of establishing irrigation protocols for each crop,
preventing waste. This, in addition to creating storage mechanisms for
as much rainwater as possible on the farms.
Much of Cuba's land is extremely compacted, which means poor drainage
into the subsoil. This, added to the high temperatures, causes that a
part of the scarce rains that fall in the national territory evaporate
almost immediately.
The other major consumer of water is tourism. A foreign visitor staying
at a hotel uses about 350 liters of water daily. This means that the 4
million tourists who arrive on the island consume a minimum of 1.4
billion liters each day.
The economy cannot do without tourism, but hotels can be required to
install water recycling equipment and irrigate green areas at the first
or last hours of the day and not at noon, which is when the greatest
evaporation is caused.
One should also think about future development plans, especially the
desirability or not of creating numerous golf courses, bearing in mind
that, while they can produce a lot of money, they are very high
consumers of fresh water.
Another major obstacle to a responsible use of water is the leaks in the
distribution networks and in homes. According to the Institute of
Hydraulic Resources, about 45% of what is pumped is lost. This situation
causes ecological, economic and health problems.
In addition to losing the vital liquid to the leaks, twice the effort is
necessary for the pumping, consuming double the amount of fuel oil.
Likewise they water company must add large amounts of chlorine to the
water to attack what can enter the system through the leaky pipes. The
country spends a lot and provides the consumer with a product with more
chemicals than is recommended.
Although the government has already begun work, the cost of repairing
the distribution networks is enormous, a task that the national economy
may not be able to finance alone. Virtually everything needs to be
replaced because closing the leaks multiplies the pressure on the old
pipes, opening many new leaks.
There are also leaks inside the dwellings, which will not be fixed while
the cost of a faucet is equal to the monthly salary of a worker. A few
years ago in Havana repairs were made free of charge for 2,500
dwellings. Maybe that path is cheaper in the long run.
The scarcity of water is not a simple issue; I would not dare to bet on
solutions because I do not have the necessary knowledge, what's more I
think nobody has them. It is a matter to analyze in a diverse scientific
group that studies all the angles.
The Cuban media have already started talking about drought, which is a
very positive step because it allows the population to visualize and
become aware of the problem. However, given its seriousness, perhaps it
should have a greater media presence.
In contrast, the country continues to take superficial and contradictory
measures. While prohibiting the construction of swimming pools they
supply water to all public fountains, prioritizing urban aesthetics over
protection of an increasingly scarce natural resource.
There is a need for a national strategy that looks for resources to
change the distribution networks and incorporates the problem into all
economic projects. It must also include sealing the domestic leaks and
creates a culture of saving in the population, because no scarcity will
be as terrible as that of water.
Source: Cuba Needs Responsible Water Usage - Havana Times.org -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=123830
Rosa María Payá and Castroism's fear
Editorial: Rosa María Payá and Castroism's fear
DDC | Madrid | 23 de Febrero de 2017 - 12:37 CET.
In Havana, Rosa María Payá, President of the Latin American Youth
Network for Democracy, was going to bestow the Oswaldo Payá Freedom and
Life Award on Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the OAS, and to honor
late Chilean President Patricio Aylwin, represented by his daughter,
former minister and ex-representative Mariana Aylwin.
In 2002 Oswaldo Payá submitted 11,020 signatures to the Cuban National
Assembly and, in 2004, 14,000 additional ones demanding the freedom of
association, the freedom of speech and press, free elections, and
amnesty for political prisoners. Securing the support of such a large
number of people under circumstances like Cuba's entailed a complex
mobilization effort headed up by the leader of the Varela Project, the
largest undertaken by the democratic opposition in Cuba.
The response of the National Assembly to this request resulted in a
modification of the Constitution, with socialism being described as
"irreversible" in Cuba.
Oswaldo Payá perished on July 22, 2012 on a road near Bayamo. His family
reported that the car he was traveling in was hit by a State Security
vehicle. The circumstances of his death remain unclear. The regime has
never allowed an investigation by international experts, and sought to
close the case with a farcical trial.
Thereafter, while upholding her father and his legacy, Rosa María Payá
has continued her struggle for the democratization of Cuba, framing it
in a continental context. This has helped to overturn the tendency to
approach Cuba separately, as unique exception, in the region. Payá has
shown solidarity with the causes and challenges facing youth and
activists from other countries, obtaining the same in return.
The result of this has been a wave of condemnations and expressions of
solidarity from figures such as former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, and former presidents Sebastián Piñera (Chile) and Felipe
Calderón (Mexico), to the obstacles placed by the regime against the
awards ceremony, to be held in Havana. Once again Castroism has shown
that it is, irreversibly, a dictatorship. Denying entry to the Secretary
General of the OAS and other international invitees merely evidences its
desperation and fear.
Source: Editorial: Rosa María Payá and Castroism's fear | Diario de Cuba
- http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1487849877_29173.html
DDC | Madrid | 23 de Febrero de 2017 - 12:37 CET.
In Havana, Rosa María Payá, President of the Latin American Youth
Network for Democracy, was going to bestow the Oswaldo Payá Freedom and
Life Award on Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the OAS, and to honor
late Chilean President Patricio Aylwin, represented by his daughter,
former minister and ex-representative Mariana Aylwin.
In 2002 Oswaldo Payá submitted 11,020 signatures to the Cuban National
Assembly and, in 2004, 14,000 additional ones demanding the freedom of
association, the freedom of speech and press, free elections, and
amnesty for political prisoners. Securing the support of such a large
number of people under circumstances like Cuba's entailed a complex
mobilization effort headed up by the leader of the Varela Project, the
largest undertaken by the democratic opposition in Cuba.
The response of the National Assembly to this request resulted in a
modification of the Constitution, with socialism being described as
"irreversible" in Cuba.
Oswaldo Payá perished on July 22, 2012 on a road near Bayamo. His family
reported that the car he was traveling in was hit by a State Security
vehicle. The circumstances of his death remain unclear. The regime has
never allowed an investigation by international experts, and sought to
close the case with a farcical trial.
Thereafter, while upholding her father and his legacy, Rosa María Payá
has continued her struggle for the democratization of Cuba, framing it
in a continental context. This has helped to overturn the tendency to
approach Cuba separately, as unique exception, in the region. Payá has
shown solidarity with the causes and challenges facing youth and
activists from other countries, obtaining the same in return.
The result of this has been a wave of condemnations and expressions of
solidarity from figures such as former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, and former presidents Sebastián Piñera (Chile) and Felipe
Calderón (Mexico), to the obstacles placed by the regime against the
awards ceremony, to be held in Havana. Once again Castroism has shown
that it is, irreversibly, a dictatorship. Denying entry to the Secretary
General of the OAS and other international invitees merely evidences its
desperation and fear.
Source: Editorial: Rosa María Payá and Castroism's fear | Diario de Cuba
- http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1487849877_29173.html
Oswaldo Payá Award Ceremony Is Absent The Winners
Oswaldo Payá Award Ceremony Is Absent The Winners / 14ymedio, EFE
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 22 February 2017 — The presentation of the Oswaldo
Payá "Freedom and Life" Prize has led to a diplomatic conflict, after
the Cuban government vetoed the entry into the country of three of the
guests: OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, Former Mexican President
Felipe Calderón, and Mariana Aylwin.
Almagro, Calderón and Chilean delegate Mariana Aylwin were unable to
travel to the Caribbean country on Tuesday to participate in the event
called by the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy, chaired by
Rosa Maria Payá, daughter of the late Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá,
which the Cuban government Cuban has labeled a "provocation."
Around Payá's house, in the Havana municipality of Cerro, a police
operation deployed in the early hours of the day prevented activists
from reaching the home. From Manila Park, near the house, State Security
agents dressed in civilian clothes demanded documentation from any
dissident or independent journalists who approached.
Payá told this newspaper that her phone had been "out of service" in the
afternoon although "in the morning it worked." The ceremony was attended
by seven activists who had spent the night in the house "plus another 20
people who where able to reach it," said the dissident. Among them was
the head of the political-economic section of the US Embassy in Cuba,
Dana Brown, as well as diplomatic representatives from Sweden and the
Czech Republic.
Payá said that the award ceremony had been surrounded by a lot of
repression on the part of the regime, Cuban State Security and the
Foreign Ministry." She condemned the reprisals "suffered by civil
society members who wanted to participate in the ceremony, resulting in
many of them being arrested and others prevented from leaving their homes."
All of the leaders of the opposition groups on the island "were
invited," Payá told this newspaper. "There are some with whom we have
lost communication over the last few days because of everything that is
happening, and others who are not in the country and others who couldn't
get here."
"We hope that this aggression, this rudeness, will find a response and a
reaction in all the governments belonging to the Organization of
American States (OAS), in all the governments of our region and also in
the European Union," said Rosa María Payá.
Luis Almargo tweeted: Our interest: To facilitate #Cuba's approach to
Interamerican values/principles and to expand the country's achievements
in science, health and education.
The Chilean and Mexican Chancelleries regretted the decision of
Cuba, and Chile announced that it will call its ambassador on the island
for consultations.
Meanwhile, the only official response from Cuba has come from the
Cuban embassy in Chile, which issued a communication referring to the
matter as "a grave international provocation against the Cuban
government," with the aim of "generating internal instability" and
affecting Cuba's diplomatic relations with other countries.
According to this note, the act was created "by an illegal anti-Cuban
group that acts against constitutional order and that arouses the
repudiation of the people, with the collusion and financing of
politicians and foreign institutions."
The ceremony finally took place without the presence of the
international guests. "The chairs will remain empty" until the awardees
"can land in Havana" to pick them up in person, assured Rosa María
Payá. Other Cuban guests were prevented from leaving their homes or
arrested on the road.
Independent journalists Henry Constantin Ferreiro and Sol García Basulto
were detained in the airport of Camagüey at the moment that they tried
to board a flight towards the capital.
Constantín Ferreiro is vice-president of the Inter-American Press
Association for Cuba and remains in custody without his parents being
able to see him or provide him with personal hygiene supplies, according
to his father.
Havana's decision not to authorize the arrival of the head of the OAS
was known after a night of uncertainty in which it was not clear whether
Almagro had traveled to the Cuban capital, where he initially planned to
fly from Paris, where he had participated in institutional activities
yesterday. Rosa María Paya today called on the OAS to support the right
of the Cuban people to decide on their destiny.
"To the point that Cuba is democratizing, all democracies in Latin
America will also gain stability," said the opposition leader, who hoped
that "today is the beginning of an OAS commitment to the cause of rights
and freedom in Cuba."
She pointed out that they do not expect the OAS to "speak out against
anyone," but instead to put itself "on the side of all Cuban citizens in
their right to begin a transition process."
Source: Oswaldo Payá Award Ceremony Is Absent The Winners / 14ymedio,
EFE – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/oswaldo-paya-award-ceremony-is-absent-the-winners-14ymedio-efe/
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 22 February 2017 — The presentation of the Oswaldo
Payá "Freedom and Life" Prize has led to a diplomatic conflict, after
the Cuban government vetoed the entry into the country of three of the
guests: OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, Former Mexican President
Felipe Calderón, and Mariana Aylwin.
Almagro, Calderón and Chilean delegate Mariana Aylwin were unable to
travel to the Caribbean country on Tuesday to participate in the event
called by the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy, chaired by
Rosa Maria Payá, daughter of the late Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá,
which the Cuban government Cuban has labeled a "provocation."
Around Payá's house, in the Havana municipality of Cerro, a police
operation deployed in the early hours of the day prevented activists
from reaching the home. From Manila Park, near the house, State Security
agents dressed in civilian clothes demanded documentation from any
dissident or independent journalists who approached.
Payá told this newspaper that her phone had been "out of service" in the
afternoon although "in the morning it worked." The ceremony was attended
by seven activists who had spent the night in the house "plus another 20
people who where able to reach it," said the dissident. Among them was
the head of the political-economic section of the US Embassy in Cuba,
Dana Brown, as well as diplomatic representatives from Sweden and the
Czech Republic.
Payá said that the award ceremony had been surrounded by a lot of
repression on the part of the regime, Cuban State Security and the
Foreign Ministry." She condemned the reprisals "suffered by civil
society members who wanted to participate in the ceremony, resulting in
many of them being arrested and others prevented from leaving their homes."
All of the leaders of the opposition groups on the island "were
invited," Payá told this newspaper. "There are some with whom we have
lost communication over the last few days because of everything that is
happening, and others who are not in the country and others who couldn't
get here."
"We hope that this aggression, this rudeness, will find a response and a
reaction in all the governments belonging to the Organization of
American States (OAS), in all the governments of our region and also in
the European Union," said Rosa María Payá.
Luis Almargo tweeted: Our interest: To facilitate #Cuba's approach to
Interamerican values/principles and to expand the country's achievements
in science, health and education.
The Chilean and Mexican Chancelleries regretted the decision of
Cuba, and Chile announced that it will call its ambassador on the island
for consultations.
Meanwhile, the only official response from Cuba has come from the
Cuban embassy in Chile, which issued a communication referring to the
matter as "a grave international provocation against the Cuban
government," with the aim of "generating internal instability" and
affecting Cuba's diplomatic relations with other countries.
According to this note, the act was created "by an illegal anti-Cuban
group that acts against constitutional order and that arouses the
repudiation of the people, with the collusion and financing of
politicians and foreign institutions."
The ceremony finally took place without the presence of the
international guests. "The chairs will remain empty" until the awardees
"can land in Havana" to pick them up in person, assured Rosa María
Payá. Other Cuban guests were prevented from leaving their homes or
arrested on the road.
Independent journalists Henry Constantin Ferreiro and Sol García Basulto
were detained in the airport of Camagüey at the moment that they tried
to board a flight towards the capital.
Constantín Ferreiro is vice-president of the Inter-American Press
Association for Cuba and remains in custody without his parents being
able to see him or provide him with personal hygiene supplies, according
to his father.
Havana's decision not to authorize the arrival of the head of the OAS
was known after a night of uncertainty in which it was not clear whether
Almagro had traveled to the Cuban capital, where he initially planned to
fly from Paris, where he had participated in institutional activities
yesterday. Rosa María Paya today called on the OAS to support the right
of the Cuban people to decide on their destiny.
"To the point that Cuba is democratizing, all democracies in Latin
America will also gain stability," said the opposition leader, who hoped
that "today is the beginning of an OAS commitment to the cause of rights
and freedom in Cuba."
She pointed out that they do not expect the OAS to "speak out against
anyone," but instead to put itself "on the side of all Cuban citizens in
their right to begin a transition process."
Source: Oswaldo Payá Award Ceremony Is Absent The Winners / 14ymedio,
EFE – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/oswaldo-paya-award-ceremony-is-absent-the-winners-14ymedio-efe/
Felipe Calderón “I Ask The Cuban Government To Rectify This Absurdity”
Felipe Calderón: "I Ask The Cuban Government To Rectify This Absurdity"
/ 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2017 — Just five years ago, Mexican
President Felipe Calderón was greeted warmly in Havana during an
official visit. However, this week the now former president was denied
entry to the island to participate in the Oswaldo Payá "Freedom and
Life" awards to be held this Wednesday.
"I deeply regret not being able to be with them at this tribute" to the
deceased opponent, the politician conservative National Action Party
(PAN). "The Cuban immigration authorities asked Aeromexico" not to seat
me on the flight, telling them I was an "inadmissible passenger" on Tuesday.
Prior to the trip, the former president alerted the Mexican Foreign
Ministry of his intention, because he did not want to "arrive as if he
were a tourist." He reported on his departure to Cuba's ambassador to
Mexico, Pedro Núñez, and his country's representative in Havana, Enrique
Martínez.
This is the first time that the Plaza of the Revolution has prevented a
former Mexican president from entering the country, an event that has
raised a diplomatic dust storm, including a tweet from the Mexican
Foreign Ministry in which he "regrets the decision of the Government of
Cuba not to authorize the visit to Havana of former President Felipe
Calderón."
Calderón recalls that he supported "Oswaldo Payá many years ago without
having met him, by spreading the Varela Project and collecting
signatures in Mexico for him." In those years he saw "with great sadness
how the Cubans involved in the project were persecuted."
The politician evokes with special aggravation the Black Spring of 2003
and his indignation to learn that 75 dissidents had been arrested and
sentenced to long prison terms under the so-called Gag Law.
In one of his previous visits to the island, Calderón asked President
Raúl Castro to let him speak with Oswaldo Payá, leader of the Christian
Liberation Movement (MCL). However, "the Cuban government always
resisted," he recalls. He believes that the "diplomatic complications
obstructed" this longed-for encounter.
"I ask the Cuban government to rectify this absurdity," said the former
president, who maintains his idea of meeting "with Oswaldo's family"
whom he admired for being "an example of congruence, civility and love
of neighbor."
The former Chilean foreign minister Mariana Aylwin experienced a similar
situation on Wednesday when she was prevented from boarding a flight
from her country to participate in the ceremony where a posthumous
recognition will be made to her father, Patricio Aylwin, the first
president under democracy in Chile after the dictatorship of Augusto
Pinochet.
The Chilean Foreign Ministry said that the government "will make the
Cuban authorities aware of their displeasure at this action" because the
purpose of Mariana Aylwin's trip "was to receive from a civic
organization the testimony of recognition of her father… The exercise of
this right should not be impeded, especially when in Chile there have
been various acknowledgments of Cuban historical and political figures."
According to Rosa María Payá, Uruguayan Luis Almagro, Secretary General
of the Organization of American States (OAS), has confirmed his presence
at the event today to receive the Freedom and Life Award for his
"outstanding performance in defense of democracy," although he has not
made a statement on the matter.
The award ceremony, which is due to be held on Wednesday, is being led
by the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy, an organization
headed by Rosa María Payá, daughter of the late dissident.
Nationally, the government also prevented independent journalists Sol
García Basulto and Henry Constantin from Camagüey from traveling to
Havana, where they planned to fly to attend the award ceremony. The
Inter American Press Association (IAPA), of which Constantin is regional
vice president for Cuba, issued a protest statement demanding the
release of the reporter, who until yesterday remained detained.
Source: Felipe Calderón: "I Ask The Cuban Government To Rectify This
Absurdity" / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/felipe-calderon-i-ask-the-cuban-government-to-rectify-this-absurdity-14ymedio/
/ 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2017 — Just five years ago, Mexican
President Felipe Calderón was greeted warmly in Havana during an
official visit. However, this week the now former president was denied
entry to the island to participate in the Oswaldo Payá "Freedom and
Life" awards to be held this Wednesday.
"I deeply regret not being able to be with them at this tribute" to the
deceased opponent, the politician conservative National Action Party
(PAN). "The Cuban immigration authorities asked Aeromexico" not to seat
me on the flight, telling them I was an "inadmissible passenger" on Tuesday.
Prior to the trip, the former president alerted the Mexican Foreign
Ministry of his intention, because he did not want to "arrive as if he
were a tourist." He reported on his departure to Cuba's ambassador to
Mexico, Pedro Núñez, and his country's representative in Havana, Enrique
Martínez.
This is the first time that the Plaza of the Revolution has prevented a
former Mexican president from entering the country, an event that has
raised a diplomatic dust storm, including a tweet from the Mexican
Foreign Ministry in which he "regrets the decision of the Government of
Cuba not to authorize the visit to Havana of former President Felipe
Calderón."
Calderón recalls that he supported "Oswaldo Payá many years ago without
having met him, by spreading the Varela Project and collecting
signatures in Mexico for him." In those years he saw "with great sadness
how the Cubans involved in the project were persecuted."
The politician evokes with special aggravation the Black Spring of 2003
and his indignation to learn that 75 dissidents had been arrested and
sentenced to long prison terms under the so-called Gag Law.
In one of his previous visits to the island, Calderón asked President
Raúl Castro to let him speak with Oswaldo Payá, leader of the Christian
Liberation Movement (MCL). However, "the Cuban government always
resisted," he recalls. He believes that the "diplomatic complications
obstructed" this longed-for encounter.
"I ask the Cuban government to rectify this absurdity," said the former
president, who maintains his idea of meeting "with Oswaldo's family"
whom he admired for being "an example of congruence, civility and love
of neighbor."
The former Chilean foreign minister Mariana Aylwin experienced a similar
situation on Wednesday when she was prevented from boarding a flight
from her country to participate in the ceremony where a posthumous
recognition will be made to her father, Patricio Aylwin, the first
president under democracy in Chile after the dictatorship of Augusto
Pinochet.
The Chilean Foreign Ministry said that the government "will make the
Cuban authorities aware of their displeasure at this action" because the
purpose of Mariana Aylwin's trip "was to receive from a civic
organization the testimony of recognition of her father… The exercise of
this right should not be impeded, especially when in Chile there have
been various acknowledgments of Cuban historical and political figures."
According to Rosa María Payá, Uruguayan Luis Almagro, Secretary General
of the Organization of American States (OAS), has confirmed his presence
at the event today to receive the Freedom and Life Award for his
"outstanding performance in defense of democracy," although he has not
made a statement on the matter.
The award ceremony, which is due to be held on Wednesday, is being led
by the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy, an organization
headed by Rosa María Payá, daughter of the late dissident.
Nationally, the government also prevented independent journalists Sol
García Basulto and Henry Constantin from Camagüey from traveling to
Havana, where they planned to fly to attend the award ceremony. The
Inter American Press Association (IAPA), of which Constantin is regional
vice president for Cuba, issued a protest statement demanding the
release of the reporter, who until yesterday remained detained.
Source: Felipe Calderón: "I Ask The Cuban Government To Rectify This
Absurdity" / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/felipe-calderon-i-ask-the-cuban-government-to-rectify-this-absurdity-14ymedio/
Alexei Gámez “Before Wifi This Was a Dead Town”
Alexei Gámez: "Before Wifi This Was a Dead Town" / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 21 February 2017– Surrounded by cables
and circuits Alexei Gámez has spent his life. From an early age he
became passionate about technology despite growing up amidst the rigors
of the Special Period. At age ten, he had a computer, "the kind that
connected to TVs," he recalls with a mixture of pride and irony. At that
time he did not imagine that the screens and the keyboards would help to
awaken in him a civic conscience.
At the beginning of this month, the name of this young man of 35 years,
resident in Jagüey Grande, appeared in the digital media. Police broke
into his house and after a meticulous search took the devices for
wireless connection that Gámez counted among his most valuable
treasures. The trigger was a Youtube channel where he teaches Cubans how
to set up a wifi network with routers and NanoStations.
At that moment he crossed the line. In a country where thousands of
users are plugged into wireless networks every day, the authorities turn
a blind eye most of the time because of the inability to control the
phenomenon. But it is one thing to connect to SNet, the largest of these
communities, and another to say publicly that you do so and, in
addition, to teach others how to create their own virtual web.
When the eyes of the cyber-cops focused on him, it carried no weight
that at the age of 19 he had been one of a contingent of computer
scientists, nor that he became the administrator of the Banco Popular de
Ahorro network in Matanzas. After the raid on his home, an officer
warned him that the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) accused
him of "illegal economic activity," although he was never paid a penny
to distribute his knowledge.
He entered the world of politics at full speed and now says, with
determination, he will be involved in it "until my last day
Since then, Gámez can not leave town without asking permission, but
immobilizing a computer expert is like trying to hold back the sea.
Technology has also connected him with a new life. A few years ago he
obtained one of those USB memories loaded with audiovisual content that
circulate from hand to hand. Thus he met Eliécer Ávila, leader of the
Somos+ (We Are More) Movement. "That was the beginning of a friendship
that lasts until today," says Gamez.
However, technology remains his main passion. "By not having access to
mass media such as radio and television, because they are state media
and only represent the Communist Party, we try to spread our message
through a USB drive, a DVD or in the Weekly Packet," he told this newspaper.
Computers, smartphones and tablets "have given us the opportunity to get
closer to people and convey our message of how we think and how we want
things to be in the future," he explains.
For Gámez the opening of Wi-Fi zones in squares and parks of the country
is still far from an efficient service. "The bandwidth is very
restricted" and "clearly they have it very controlled." With his
knowledge, he intuits that navigation through Nauta service could be a
more successful experience for customers, if the state
telecommunications company ETECSA, that operates it, proposed it.
"I rely on the experience of whose of us who have a wireless network at
the municipal level, with approximately 200 people connected and working
at high speed." Gámez says he can "watch a film" from his house even
though its streaming on a computer elsewhere. "We do that with equipment
of lower power" than those of the state monopoly.
Jagüey Grande Park is the center of the life of the municipality and the
little recreation available to the residents. "When a few people get
together, that's as far as the Nauta connection goes," complains the
computer expert.
However, he believes that the installation of a Wi-Fi zone has
significantly changed the life of the area. "Before wifi this was a dead
town, there was nowhere to go," he recalls. "On weekends there were
several nightclubs, one for children, one for young people and one
discotemba*."
Gámez played in that park as a child and evokes the times he spent amid
its trees and benches. But with the passing of years, "the park was
dying and was always dark," he laments. "After the coming of the
internet it's full all the time and for the young people it's a fixed
meeting point," he says with relief.
Like many of these netizens, Alexei Gámez manages to slip through the
bars of control every day thanks to wireless networks. He does it like a
mischievous child who clings to the tail of a kite called "technology."
*Translator's note: Discotemba = a place that plays older music for an
older crowd.
Source: Alexei Gámez: "Before Wifi This Was a Dead Town" / 14ymedio, Luz
Escobar – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/alexei-gamez-before-wifi-this-was-a-dead-town-14ymedio-luz-escobar/
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 21 February 2017– Surrounded by cables
and circuits Alexei Gámez has spent his life. From an early age he
became passionate about technology despite growing up amidst the rigors
of the Special Period. At age ten, he had a computer, "the kind that
connected to TVs," he recalls with a mixture of pride and irony. At that
time he did not imagine that the screens and the keyboards would help to
awaken in him a civic conscience.
At the beginning of this month, the name of this young man of 35 years,
resident in Jagüey Grande, appeared in the digital media. Police broke
into his house and after a meticulous search took the devices for
wireless connection that Gámez counted among his most valuable
treasures. The trigger was a Youtube channel where he teaches Cubans how
to set up a wifi network with routers and NanoStations.
At that moment he crossed the line. In a country where thousands of
users are plugged into wireless networks every day, the authorities turn
a blind eye most of the time because of the inability to control the
phenomenon. But it is one thing to connect to SNet, the largest of these
communities, and another to say publicly that you do so and, in
addition, to teach others how to create their own virtual web.
When the eyes of the cyber-cops focused on him, it carried no weight
that at the age of 19 he had been one of a contingent of computer
scientists, nor that he became the administrator of the Banco Popular de
Ahorro network in Matanzas. After the raid on his home, an officer
warned him that the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) accused
him of "illegal economic activity," although he was never paid a penny
to distribute his knowledge.
He entered the world of politics at full speed and now says, with
determination, he will be involved in it "until my last day
Since then, Gámez can not leave town without asking permission, but
immobilizing a computer expert is like trying to hold back the sea.
Technology has also connected him with a new life. A few years ago he
obtained one of those USB memories loaded with audiovisual content that
circulate from hand to hand. Thus he met Eliécer Ávila, leader of the
Somos+ (We Are More) Movement. "That was the beginning of a friendship
that lasts until today," says Gamez.
However, technology remains his main passion. "By not having access to
mass media such as radio and television, because they are state media
and only represent the Communist Party, we try to spread our message
through a USB drive, a DVD or in the Weekly Packet," he told this newspaper.
Computers, smartphones and tablets "have given us the opportunity to get
closer to people and convey our message of how we think and how we want
things to be in the future," he explains.
For Gámez the opening of Wi-Fi zones in squares and parks of the country
is still far from an efficient service. "The bandwidth is very
restricted" and "clearly they have it very controlled." With his
knowledge, he intuits that navigation through Nauta service could be a
more successful experience for customers, if the state
telecommunications company ETECSA, that operates it, proposed it.
"I rely on the experience of whose of us who have a wireless network at
the municipal level, with approximately 200 people connected and working
at high speed." Gámez says he can "watch a film" from his house even
though its streaming on a computer elsewhere. "We do that with equipment
of lower power" than those of the state monopoly.
Jagüey Grande Park is the center of the life of the municipality and the
little recreation available to the residents. "When a few people get
together, that's as far as the Nauta connection goes," complains the
computer expert.
However, he believes that the installation of a Wi-Fi zone has
significantly changed the life of the area. "Before wifi this was a dead
town, there was nowhere to go," he recalls. "On weekends there were
several nightclubs, one for children, one for young people and one
discotemba*."
Gámez played in that park as a child and evokes the times he spent amid
its trees and benches. But with the passing of years, "the park was
dying and was always dark," he laments. "After the coming of the
internet it's full all the time and for the young people it's a fixed
meeting point," he says with relief.
Like many of these netizens, Alexei Gámez manages to slip through the
bars of control every day thanks to wireless networks. He does it like a
mischievous child who clings to the tail of a kite called "technology."
*Translator's note: Discotemba = a place that plays older music for an
older crowd.
Source: Alexei Gámez: "Before Wifi This Was a Dead Town" / 14ymedio, Luz
Escobar – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/alexei-gamez-before-wifi-this-was-a-dead-town-14ymedio-luz-escobar/
The IAPA Demands The Government Of Cuba Release Its Regional Vice President On The Island
The IAPA Demands The Government Of Cuba Release Its Regional Vice
President On The Island / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Miami, 21 February 2017 — The Inter American Press
Association (IAPA) condemned the arrest in Cuba of Henry Constantin
Ferreiro, director of the magazine Hour of Cuba and regional vice
president of its Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and
called for his release, stressing the urgency of including guarantees
for freedom of expression and of the press within the framework of the
policy of rapprochement of the United States with the Cuban government.
The president of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press, Roberto
Rock, demanded the immediate release of Constantin. "We also demand
respect for journalistic work and the exercise of freedom of expression
in Cuba," added Rock, director of La Silla Rota de México. "The
dictatorial measures of the Cuban Government have not changed a bit,
continue to harass and disrespect freedom of expression," he said.
Constantín, who was named vice president of the IAPA's Committee on
Freedom of the Press and Information, was arrested last night at the
airport in the province of Camagüey with Sol García Basulto,
correspondent of the 14ymedio portal. The journalists were preparing to
take a flight to Havana to cover the first installment of the "Oswaldo
Payá Award: Freedom and Life" in honor of the late political opponent,
granted to the Executive Secretary of the Organization of American
States, Luis Almagro.
According to media reports, Garcia Basulto reported via telephone that
she was taken to the third Montecarlo Police Station, where she remained
until she was released shortly before dawn, while Constantin is still in
detention. His family said that "the police had set up an operation
around the house, but he had already left for the airport."
Rock concluded that "Cuba's opening to the world will be possible when
the human rights of all Cubans are guaranteed freedom of expression and
of the press, and as long as this does not happen, we will continue to
denounce it aloud."
The IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the defense and
promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It
is composed of more than 1,300 publications from the Western Hemisphere,
and is based in Miami, United States.
Source: The IAPA Demands The Government Of Cuba Release Its Regional
Vice President On The Island / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-iapa-demands-the-government-of-cuba-release-its-regional-vice-president-on-the-island-14ymedio/
President On The Island / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Miami, 21 February 2017 — The Inter American Press
Association (IAPA) condemned the arrest in Cuba of Henry Constantin
Ferreiro, director of the magazine Hour of Cuba and regional vice
president of its Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and
called for his release, stressing the urgency of including guarantees
for freedom of expression and of the press within the framework of the
policy of rapprochement of the United States with the Cuban government.
The president of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press, Roberto
Rock, demanded the immediate release of Constantin. "We also demand
respect for journalistic work and the exercise of freedom of expression
in Cuba," added Rock, director of La Silla Rota de México. "The
dictatorial measures of the Cuban Government have not changed a bit,
continue to harass and disrespect freedom of expression," he said.
Constantín, who was named vice president of the IAPA's Committee on
Freedom of the Press and Information, was arrested last night at the
airport in the province of Camagüey with Sol García Basulto,
correspondent of the 14ymedio portal. The journalists were preparing to
take a flight to Havana to cover the first installment of the "Oswaldo
Payá Award: Freedom and Life" in honor of the late political opponent,
granted to the Executive Secretary of the Organization of American
States, Luis Almagro.
According to media reports, Garcia Basulto reported via telephone that
she was taken to the third Montecarlo Police Station, where she remained
until she was released shortly before dawn, while Constantin is still in
detention. His family said that "the police had set up an operation
around the house, but he had already left for the airport."
Rock concluded that "Cuba's opening to the world will be possible when
the human rights of all Cubans are guaranteed freedom of expression and
of the press, and as long as this does not happen, we will continue to
denounce it aloud."
The IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the defense and
promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It
is composed of more than 1,300 publications from the Western Hemisphere,
and is based in Miami, United States.
Source: The IAPA Demands The Government Of Cuba Release Its Regional
Vice President On The Island / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-iapa-demands-the-government-of-cuba-release-its-regional-vice-president-on-the-island-14ymedio/
Cuba Refuses OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro Entry To The Island
Cuba Refuses OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro Entry To The Island /
14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2017 — The Secretary General of the
Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, has published
a letter explaining why he can not attend the Oswaldo Payá "Freedom and
Life" Award ceremony. In the letter, addressed to Rosa Maria Paya,
Almagro states that he will not come after the refusal of the Havana
authorities to grant him an entry visa to Cuba.
The Cuban consulate also denied Almagro entrance to the country using
his Uruguayan passport, with which it would not need entrance visa.
According to the Secretary General of the OAS, an official of the
Organization, Chris Hernández-Roy, was summoned to a meeting last
Thursday by the Consul of Cuba in Washington and the First Secretary of
the Consulate in which he expressed, also, the Cuban authorities'
surprise over the reason for the visit and its astonishment at the
"involvement" of Almagro in anti-Cuban activities.
The award is not recognized by the Cuban State and the activities of
Cuba Decide, an organization led by Rosa Maria Payá, "undermines the
Cuban electoral system," according to what they told the OAS.
For all these reasons, the authorities refused to grant Almagro a visa
and warned him that he would not be admitted to the country if he
attempted to board a flight bound for the island.
"We have responded to these arguments by pointing out that the only
interest on our part has been, is and will be to facilitate Cuba's
rapprochement with the values and principles of the inter-American
system, both as regards the defense of democracy and the promotion and
respect for human rights, while expanding Cuba's achievements in
science, health and education to our region," said Almagro.
Almagro laments in his missive the "analysis as superficial as it is
alarmist," that has led to his visit being interpreted as a problem for
relations with the United States. He considers it "rather ridiculous"
that bilateral relations between the two countries depend simply on the
holding of the award ceremony.
He emphasizes, furthermore, that his presence on the island scheduled
for Tuesday has nothing to do with a desire to evaluate the internal
situation of Cuba or its political or ideological trends, issues on
which he says he does not consider himself competent to give an opinion.
As Almagro writes in the letter, this is not the first time an act of
this kind has been carried out in other countries of the region, and so,
he says, he has made it known to the Cuban authorities. According to the
secretary general of the OAS, these acts in other countries "are carried
out without the government necessarily supporting them, but without
censoring them, because they are part of the tolerance of democratic
systems and values," he argues.
His only concern, he says, is that he hopes that as a result of the
Cuban government's boycott of the Oswaldo Payá Award, there will be no
repression of those who organized the event. "This would be absolutely
unfair and undesirable," he warns.
Almagro argued that his presence and activities are not anti-Cuban "in
any case" and, on the contrary, his interest is that the country
develops at all levels, not forgetting the guarantee of all the rights
of its citizens.
For that reason, the Secretary General of the OAS also rejects the
"criminalization" of Cuba Decides and notes that his intention was to
honor the memory of Oswaldo Payá, so he asked that the authorities
reconsider their decision and allow him to enter the Island. "But that
was not possible," he laments.
Almagro closes his letter by reiterating to Rosa Maria Payá the high
regard he has for her, in addition to his desire to "continue working
within the framework of cooperation established between the Latin
American Network of Youth for Democracy," of which she is the current
president, "and the OAS."
The relationship of the Secretary General of the OAS with the Cuban
Government has gone through distinct phases. In November of 2014 Almagro
visited the Island for fourth time, in his role foreign minister of the
Republic of Uruguay. On that occasion he was interviewed by Cuban
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez. However, on assuming his current
position in the OAS he became a frequent target of criticism in the
official press.
The OAS and the Government of the Island have had tense encounters for
decades, since the country was excluded from the regional organization
in January 1962, after defining its Marxist-Leninist course. In 2009 the
OAS lifted the suspension that weighed on the Island and supported its
eventual rejoining of the organization.
Almagro reiterated the invitation to Havana in early 2016 when he stated
that his heart felt that Cuba "should be back" in the body, although his
brain indicated that the process "will not go that fast."
During a meeting of the Association of Caribbean States held in Havana,
President Raúl Castro reiterated that "the OAS from its foundation was,
is and will be an instrument of imperialist domination and that no
reform could change its nature or its history. Cuba will never return to
the OAS. "
Source: Cuba Refuses OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro Entry To The
Island / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-refuses-oas-secretary-general-luis-almagro-entry-to-the-island-14ymedio/
14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2017 — The Secretary General of the
Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, has published
a letter explaining why he can not attend the Oswaldo Payá "Freedom and
Life" Award ceremony. In the letter, addressed to Rosa Maria Paya,
Almagro states that he will not come after the refusal of the Havana
authorities to grant him an entry visa to Cuba.
The Cuban consulate also denied Almagro entrance to the country using
his Uruguayan passport, with which it would not need entrance visa.
According to the Secretary General of the OAS, an official of the
Organization, Chris Hernández-Roy, was summoned to a meeting last
Thursday by the Consul of Cuba in Washington and the First Secretary of
the Consulate in which he expressed, also, the Cuban authorities'
surprise over the reason for the visit and its astonishment at the
"involvement" of Almagro in anti-Cuban activities.
The award is not recognized by the Cuban State and the activities of
Cuba Decide, an organization led by Rosa Maria Payá, "undermines the
Cuban electoral system," according to what they told the OAS.
For all these reasons, the authorities refused to grant Almagro a visa
and warned him that he would not be admitted to the country if he
attempted to board a flight bound for the island.
"We have responded to these arguments by pointing out that the only
interest on our part has been, is and will be to facilitate Cuba's
rapprochement with the values and principles of the inter-American
system, both as regards the defense of democracy and the promotion and
respect for human rights, while expanding Cuba's achievements in
science, health and education to our region," said Almagro.
Almagro laments in his missive the "analysis as superficial as it is
alarmist," that has led to his visit being interpreted as a problem for
relations with the United States. He considers it "rather ridiculous"
that bilateral relations between the two countries depend simply on the
holding of the award ceremony.
He emphasizes, furthermore, that his presence on the island scheduled
for Tuesday has nothing to do with a desire to evaluate the internal
situation of Cuba or its political or ideological trends, issues on
which he says he does not consider himself competent to give an opinion.
As Almagro writes in the letter, this is not the first time an act of
this kind has been carried out in other countries of the region, and so,
he says, he has made it known to the Cuban authorities. According to the
secretary general of the OAS, these acts in other countries "are carried
out without the government necessarily supporting them, but without
censoring them, because they are part of the tolerance of democratic
systems and values," he argues.
His only concern, he says, is that he hopes that as a result of the
Cuban government's boycott of the Oswaldo Payá Award, there will be no
repression of those who organized the event. "This would be absolutely
unfair and undesirable," he warns.
Almagro argued that his presence and activities are not anti-Cuban "in
any case" and, on the contrary, his interest is that the country
develops at all levels, not forgetting the guarantee of all the rights
of its citizens.
For that reason, the Secretary General of the OAS also rejects the
"criminalization" of Cuba Decides and notes that his intention was to
honor the memory of Oswaldo Payá, so he asked that the authorities
reconsider their decision and allow him to enter the Island. "But that
was not possible," he laments.
Almagro closes his letter by reiterating to Rosa Maria Payá the high
regard he has for her, in addition to his desire to "continue working
within the framework of cooperation established between the Latin
American Network of Youth for Democracy," of which she is the current
president, "and the OAS."
The relationship of the Secretary General of the OAS with the Cuban
Government has gone through distinct phases. In November of 2014 Almagro
visited the Island for fourth time, in his role foreign minister of the
Republic of Uruguay. On that occasion he was interviewed by Cuban
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez. However, on assuming his current
position in the OAS he became a frequent target of criticism in the
official press.
The OAS and the Government of the Island have had tense encounters for
decades, since the country was excluded from the regional organization
in January 1962, after defining its Marxist-Leninist course. In 2009 the
OAS lifted the suspension that weighed on the Island and supported its
eventual rejoining of the organization.
Almagro reiterated the invitation to Havana in early 2016 when he stated
that his heart felt that Cuba "should be back" in the body, although his
brain indicated that the process "will not go that fast."
During a meeting of the Association of Caribbean States held in Havana,
President Raúl Castro reiterated that "the OAS from its foundation was,
is and will be an instrument of imperialist domination and that no
reform could change its nature or its history. Cuba will never return to
the OAS. "
Source: Cuba Refuses OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro Entry To The
Island / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-refuses-oas-secretary-general-luis-almagro-entry-to-the-island-14ymedio/
Cuban Government Blocks Several Guests From Entering Cuba For The Oswaldo Payá Award
Cuban Government Blocks Several Guests From Entering Cuba For The
Oswaldo Payá Award / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 21 February 2017 – The Cuban government has mobilized
in the last hours to prevent several guests from arriving in Havana to
attend to Oswaldo Paya Award ceremony, scheduled for tomorrow,
Wednesday, at 11:00 am. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon has
been the most recent to make public that Cuban immigration authorities
did not allow him to enter the country.
"We are informed by Immigration of Cuba that passenger FCH is not
authorized to enter Cuba and request that he not be documented on flight
AM451", Calderón published in his Twitter account transmitting the
message that the Aeromexico airline gave him.
For the moment, Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confined itself
to regretting the decision of the Cuban government not to allow the
entry into its territory of the ex-president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa,
through the Ministry's official Twitter account.
Calderón is the third case known today, after those of independent
journalists Sol García Basulto and Henry Constantin Ferreiro, who were
prevented from traveling from Camagüey to Havana. In addition Mariana
Aylwin, a former Chilean Minister, was prevented from boarding a plane
in Chile to travel to the Cuban capital on Monday, to collect the
posthumous award for her father, former President Patricio Aylwin.
The entry veto augurs diplomatic consequences, as Bachelet's government
has already announced that it will call Chile's ambassador on the island
to protest the decision. "The Government of Chile deeply regrets the
situation that has affected former minister and former parliamentarian
Mariana Aylwin being prevented from traveling to Cuba," the Foreign
Ministry said in a statement.
"The problem was fundamentally the visit of Almagro. I had my tourist
visa. I had problems checking in and I went to the airport early, where
they told me I was would not be admitted to Cuba," Aylwin told 14ymedio.
The Cuban government notified the Chilean Foreign Ministry that her
visit was not welcome. However, Mariana Aylwin no longer holds positions
in the Chilean Administration. "As I do not represent the Government, I
decided to go as many democrats came to support our struggle during the
dictatorship," she explained.
The former secretary of state explained that she would receive the award
given to her father "for the defense of democratic values."
"It's an arbitrary act, I deeply regret it because my dad opened
diplomatic relations with Cuba and now they do this," she said. Aylwin
described what happened as an "act of a dictatorship and
incomprehensible in the 21st century," and recalled "when, during the
time of Pinochet, there were many Democrats who wanted to come to give
us their solidarity who also could not enter Chile."
"That is the difference of a democracy and a dictatorship. They are
afraid of everything that opposes them in their arbitrary desires, they
own the truth, they impose themselves by force," she said, although she
admits that the country's situation hurts more than her personally. "It
hurts me a lot more that there is repression in Cuba than that I am
prevented from coming. Be of good cheer!!! There are many of us who are
with you," she told this newspaper.
Rosa María Payá, daughter of the late opponent Oswaldo Payá, has
denounced the decision taken by the Cuban Government and has made public
the document delivered to the former Chilean minister at the
airport. The text reads "Do not approve nor send the passenger [Mariana
Aylwin] who is inadmissible in Cuba."
Payá, who leads the initiative Cuba Decides, which calls for holding a
plebiscite on the island to initiate a transition to democracy, lamented
what happened and added that "now more than ever we have to work to
recover our nation hijacked by an elite never chosen by anyone."
In addition to these actions, travel bans have also been imposed on
journalists Henry Constantin Ferreiro and Sol García Basulto. Garcia
Basulto, a correspondent for 14ymedio in Camagüey, was detained until
six o'clock in the morning, while Constantin Ferreiro is still being held.
García Basulto explained that both were arrested inside Ignacio
Agramonte International Airport when they were preparing to take a
flight to Havana that departed at midnight Monday. Police seized her
"cell phone and several documents" that she carried with her, she
explained via telephone.
After the arrest, García Basulto was transferred to the third Police
Station in the Montecarlo District, where she remained until being
released shortly before dawn.
Last November, the Garcia Basulto remained under house arrest for
several days while the caravan with the ashes of former President Fidel
Castro was traveling across the country. On that occasion State Security
agents guarded her door to prevent her from leaving.
Constantin Ferreiro's mother declared at midday that from seven in the
evening on Monday, "the police had set up an operation around the house
but he had already left for the airport."
Constantín, who was named last December as regional vice president for
Cuba for the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), also serves as
director of the magazine La Hora de Cuba and at the time of his
appointment at the IAPA he committed to disseminate " The reality of
journalism "in the island. The organization has issued a press
release condemning Constantin's detention, demanding his immediate
release and calling on the Cuban government to guarantee freedom of the
press and expression.
In addition, Rosa María Payá informed 14ymedio that Cuba Decides
coordinators in Holguin Province, Julio Cesar Alvarez and Felix Fara,
were arrested on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Payá said that
Álvarez was arrested "just after" she called him to invite him to
tomorrow's event.
Thanks to some relatives of the activists, she learned that they are
still being detained as of Monday at the Holguín City Security Unit and
that their wives were warned not to approach the place to find out
anything because they would also be detained.
The first ceremony of the Oswaldo Payá "Liberty and Life" Award is
scheduled for Wednesday, and Luis Almagro, secretary general of the
Organization of American States, and, posthumously Patricio Aylwin
Constantín, will be honored.
The award recognizes "persons or institutions, whose career or concrete
action have highlighted the effective promotion and defense of human
rights, life and democracy." The award is a project of the Latin
American Network of Youth for Democracy, led by Rosa Maria Payá. The
entity brings together members of civil society, political parties and
student organizations in more than twenty countries in the region.
Source: Cuban Government Blocks Several Guests From Entering Cuba For
The Oswaldo Payá Award / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-government-blocks-several-guests-from-entering-cuba-for-the-oswaldo-paya-award-14ymedio/
Oswaldo Payá Award / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 21 February 2017 – The Cuban government has mobilized
in the last hours to prevent several guests from arriving in Havana to
attend to Oswaldo Paya Award ceremony, scheduled for tomorrow,
Wednesday, at 11:00 am. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon has
been the most recent to make public that Cuban immigration authorities
did not allow him to enter the country.
"We are informed by Immigration of Cuba that passenger FCH is not
authorized to enter Cuba and request that he not be documented on flight
AM451", Calderón published in his Twitter account transmitting the
message that the Aeromexico airline gave him.
For the moment, Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confined itself
to regretting the decision of the Cuban government not to allow the
entry into its territory of the ex-president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa,
through the Ministry's official Twitter account.
Calderón is the third case known today, after those of independent
journalists Sol García Basulto and Henry Constantin Ferreiro, who were
prevented from traveling from Camagüey to Havana. In addition Mariana
Aylwin, a former Chilean Minister, was prevented from boarding a plane
in Chile to travel to the Cuban capital on Monday, to collect the
posthumous award for her father, former President Patricio Aylwin.
The entry veto augurs diplomatic consequences, as Bachelet's government
has already announced that it will call Chile's ambassador on the island
to protest the decision. "The Government of Chile deeply regrets the
situation that has affected former minister and former parliamentarian
Mariana Aylwin being prevented from traveling to Cuba," the Foreign
Ministry said in a statement.
"The problem was fundamentally the visit of Almagro. I had my tourist
visa. I had problems checking in and I went to the airport early, where
they told me I was would not be admitted to Cuba," Aylwin told 14ymedio.
The Cuban government notified the Chilean Foreign Ministry that her
visit was not welcome. However, Mariana Aylwin no longer holds positions
in the Chilean Administration. "As I do not represent the Government, I
decided to go as many democrats came to support our struggle during the
dictatorship," she explained.
The former secretary of state explained that she would receive the award
given to her father "for the defense of democratic values."
"It's an arbitrary act, I deeply regret it because my dad opened
diplomatic relations with Cuba and now they do this," she said. Aylwin
described what happened as an "act of a dictatorship and
incomprehensible in the 21st century," and recalled "when, during the
time of Pinochet, there were many Democrats who wanted to come to give
us their solidarity who also could not enter Chile."
"That is the difference of a democracy and a dictatorship. They are
afraid of everything that opposes them in their arbitrary desires, they
own the truth, they impose themselves by force," she said, although she
admits that the country's situation hurts more than her personally. "It
hurts me a lot more that there is repression in Cuba than that I am
prevented from coming. Be of good cheer!!! There are many of us who are
with you," she told this newspaper.
Rosa María Payá, daughter of the late opponent Oswaldo Payá, has
denounced the decision taken by the Cuban Government and has made public
the document delivered to the former Chilean minister at the
airport. The text reads "Do not approve nor send the passenger [Mariana
Aylwin] who is inadmissible in Cuba."
Payá, who leads the initiative Cuba Decides, which calls for holding a
plebiscite on the island to initiate a transition to democracy, lamented
what happened and added that "now more than ever we have to work to
recover our nation hijacked by an elite never chosen by anyone."
In addition to these actions, travel bans have also been imposed on
journalists Henry Constantin Ferreiro and Sol García Basulto. Garcia
Basulto, a correspondent for 14ymedio in Camagüey, was detained until
six o'clock in the morning, while Constantin Ferreiro is still being held.
García Basulto explained that both were arrested inside Ignacio
Agramonte International Airport when they were preparing to take a
flight to Havana that departed at midnight Monday. Police seized her
"cell phone and several documents" that she carried with her, she
explained via telephone.
After the arrest, García Basulto was transferred to the third Police
Station in the Montecarlo District, where she remained until being
released shortly before dawn.
Last November, the Garcia Basulto remained under house arrest for
several days while the caravan with the ashes of former President Fidel
Castro was traveling across the country. On that occasion State Security
agents guarded her door to prevent her from leaving.
Constantin Ferreiro's mother declared at midday that from seven in the
evening on Monday, "the police had set up an operation around the house
but he had already left for the airport."
Constantín, who was named last December as regional vice president for
Cuba for the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), also serves as
director of the magazine La Hora de Cuba and at the time of his
appointment at the IAPA he committed to disseminate " The reality of
journalism "in the island. The organization has issued a press
release condemning Constantin's detention, demanding his immediate
release and calling on the Cuban government to guarantee freedom of the
press and expression.
In addition, Rosa María Payá informed 14ymedio that Cuba Decides
coordinators in Holguin Province, Julio Cesar Alvarez and Felix Fara,
were arrested on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Payá said that
Álvarez was arrested "just after" she called him to invite him to
tomorrow's event.
Thanks to some relatives of the activists, she learned that they are
still being detained as of Monday at the Holguín City Security Unit and
that their wives were warned not to approach the place to find out
anything because they would also be detained.
The first ceremony of the Oswaldo Payá "Liberty and Life" Award is
scheduled for Wednesday, and Luis Almagro, secretary general of the
Organization of American States, and, posthumously Patricio Aylwin
Constantín, will be honored.
The award recognizes "persons or institutions, whose career or concrete
action have highlighted the effective promotion and defense of human
rights, life and democracy." The award is a project of the Latin
American Network of Youth for Democracy, led by Rosa Maria Payá. The
entity brings together members of civil society, political parties and
student organizations in more than twenty countries in the region.
Source: Cuban Government Blocks Several Guests From Entering Cuba For
The Oswaldo Payá Award / 14ymedio – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-government-blocks-several-guests-from-entering-cuba-for-the-oswaldo-paya-award-14ymedio/
Canary Islanders in Cuba, Islanders Two Ways
Canary Islanders in Cuba, Islanders Two Ways / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mara
and Daniel Delisau
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata and Daniel Delisau, Havana/Las Palmas de Gran
Canaria, 20 February 2017 — The players arrange their dominoes on the
table. Outside, the sun still floods the wide entryway on Monserrate
Street in Old Havana and time seems to have stopped. The scene occurs
at the Canary Island Association of Cuba, a community that languishes
between nostalgia and lack of resources.
People from the Canary Island migrated to Cuba for decades. In 1862
there were 48,192 Canary Islanders in Cuba, 41.5% of the total Spaniards
in the country. The flow continued, with highs and lows, and between
1898 and 1932, another 70,000 Canary Islanders arrived.
The descendants of those travelers maintain some of their customs and
gather at the Association that bears the name of Jose Marti's mother,
Leonor Perez.
In the main building, there's a cultural folk night every Thursday, with
typical dances and songs although the average age of the regulars is
over 60 and the younger ones rarely come, says an employee of the place.
"They are older people, most of them with economic needs," she explains
to 14ymedio. "They need food and basic products like vitamins,
disposable diapers, bedsore creams, wheelchairs or walkers. But we are
less and less able to help them, because they've cut off a lot of the
aid to us," she adds.
"When they are helpless we have to send them to the Church, because this
Association is going through a bad time. We can barely help them and we
also have to prepare the activities we hold here," she confessed. "This
building consumes a tremendous amount of resources and keeping the doors
open every day is a heroic task."
Upstairs, sales of food and drink try to raise some cash. Coffee, soft
drinks, chicken and garbanzo Milanese, says the menu board. But the food
service isn't enough to stop the institution's decline. A deterioration
hardly noticeable to the newcomer, dazzled by the majesty of the
interior and the recently painted façade.
The Association has around 47,000 members throughout the country, and
those who are able pay 12 Cuban pesos a month in dues. This money is
barely enough to run the building, a few yards from the most luxurious
hotels in Havana's historic center, nor to maintain the association's 14
houses across the country.
In mid-2014, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the government of
the Canary Islands sent three grants worth 16,000, 9,000 and 6,000 euros
for the Association, intended for a day care center for the elderly, the
purchase of medications, and repairs and improvements to the Guines
headquarters. But the resources were quickly depleted due to high
demand, according to internal sources.
The president of the Association, Carmelo Gonzalez Acosta, traveled to
the Canaries this January to remind its public administration of the
need to maintain the aid and interviewed the Deputy Minister of Foreign
Action, Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza, with a view to "recovering the support
of the Community Administration toward those who have Canary Island
blood in their veins," reported local media.
The Cuban authorities also asked the Canary Island government to help
them by sending a stone mill to supply Canary descendants with gofio
(flour made from roasted grains), the Cuban consul in the Canary
Islands, Ulises Barquin, explained recently in an interview.
The official explained that the gofio disappeared "at the end of the
1980s with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which was the main
supplier of wheat," but now they want to restart the production because
"it goes far beyond the food aspect… it has an enormous symbolic value."
The mill sounds like a distant promise to those who spend their hours in
the spacious facility in Monserrate Street. "Before, you could come here
and eat very cheaply, but we've lost a lot of options," complains an old
man. "Now they don't sell custard and rice pudding for us, which I can't
eat any more because my sugar is through the roof."
Paco, a Cuban son of the Canaries, feels grateful for being able to
count on a place to "meet friends and have a good time." His two sons
emigrated to get Spanish nationality and now the old man waits to "have
a place in the Canary Island vault in Havana's Columbus Cemetery,"
because his family "doesn't have a proper tomb."
A woman walks through the wide gate and asks the receptionist if there
will be a feast for Easter. Her name is María Antonia Hernández, she is
56 years old and she is the granddaughter of a Canary Islander who came
to the Island at the beginning of the 20th century. "He came looking for
a better life and ended up owning a bodega in San Antonio de los Baños,"
says the woman. "A short time later he married a woman from Pinar del
Rio and they had eight children."
Roberto Domínguez, author of the book Ariguanabo: History, Music and
Poetry, says that "the behavior, the character and the way of being of
Cubans is very linked to the Canary Islands." He calculates that at
present in Cuba "there are at least 650,000 Canary Islanders of their
descendants.
When she was a child and was annoyed by something, Maria Antonia
Hernandez's mother repeated with a sneer that she was acting like an
"islander" like her grandfather. Although Cuba is also subject to "the
damn circumstances of water everywhere," according to the poet and
playwright Virgilio Pinera, Cubans rarely self-define as islanders. In
the popular language "islander" is reserved for those from the Canary
Islands.
"We are the few who called them by their place of origin, because the
rest of the Spaniards call them Galicians," reflects the granddaughter
of the old man. "He had a lot of friends who came from villages close to
his and he loved to eat ropa vieja, but with garbanzos," she recalls.
Hernandez tried to obtain Spanish nationality through the Law of
Historical Memory, popularly known as the Law of Grandchildren, but
failed to complete the paperwork with all the required documents. "My
grandfather came to this country with just his clothes and always gave
very little importance to the papers," she laments.
Failure to obtain a European Community Passport has meant a severe
economic blow for her. Earlier this month the Spanish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Cooperation announced the subsistence allowances for
2017, support that would have been very welcome to María Antonia
Hernandez, who is retired with the equivalent of 10 euros per month.
Others have been luckier than this descendant of a Canary
Islander. According to Cuba's National Statistics Institute (INE), as of
January 2015, 119,662 Spaniards resided in Cuba, the vast majority of
them Cubans who obtained Spanish nationality through the law of
grandchildren. In 2014 alone, some 5,618 nationals received their
European Community passport through that route.
Maria Antonia's grandfather was never able to return to his homeland.
"He died a few days after the events of the Port of Mariel," the
migratory crisis that led thousands of Cubans to escape the island in
1980 and that came to be known in the United States as the Mariel
Boatlift. "He would not have believed that the country he had come to
would have turned out like this."
"The bodega was nationalized and suffered directly from the shortage of
things that he liked most: tobacco, gofio and sardines," recalls Maria
Antonia. As an inheritance he left her an old mahogany wardrobe and a
three-string guitar that he played in country parties.
From Island to Island
José Luis Mosqueda is president of the Association of Cuban Residents in
Gran Canaria, the second largest of the Canary Islands. The entity "was
created six years ago and is meant to bring together the majority of
Cubans" who reside on that other island, he comments to 14ymedio.
The group has 112 members and the last public event they celebrated was
for the anniversary of José Martí, when they took flowers to a bust of
him in Telde. "The mother of José Martí was from Tenerife, but her
ancestors, the grandparents, were from San Mateo, in Gran Canaria,"
Mosqueda proudly remarks.
Consul Ulises Barquín estimates that there are some 22,700 Cubans spread
over the seven islands that make up the archipelago, "although 25 to 30%
of them are not physically here" because "they left with the economic
crisis or they repatriated themselves after Cuba changed its controls on
travel and migration, in January 2013, eliminating the requirement for
an exit permit to leave the country.
"In actual numbers, we are around 15-16,000 Cubans living in the Canary
Islands, with Tenerife having the most," and 95% of them are
regularized, says the consul.
Mosqueda emigrated to Gran Canaria 26 years ago. His sister is married
to "a Canarian of those who went to Cuba to avoid military service
during the Spanish Civil War," he says. In 1961 they decided to return
and soon the brother joined them.
When he arrived he began to work "in a company that polishes parquet and
granite, with a friend of the family." Later, he became independent and
created "a building and renovation business," he adds. He then set up an
aluminum workshop where he has been working for 15 years.
The association that he leads, Mosqueda says, brings together those who
"continue to believe that they are really Cuban and still love Cuba."
Source: Canary Islanders in Cuba, Islanders Two Ways / 14ymedio, Zunilda
Mara and Daniel Delisau – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/canary-islanders-in-cuba-islanders-two-ways-14ymedio-zunilda-mara-and-daniel-delisau/
and Daniel Delisau
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata and Daniel Delisau, Havana/Las Palmas de Gran
Canaria, 20 February 2017 — The players arrange their dominoes on the
table. Outside, the sun still floods the wide entryway on Monserrate
Street in Old Havana and time seems to have stopped. The scene occurs
at the Canary Island Association of Cuba, a community that languishes
between nostalgia and lack of resources.
People from the Canary Island migrated to Cuba for decades. In 1862
there were 48,192 Canary Islanders in Cuba, 41.5% of the total Spaniards
in the country. The flow continued, with highs and lows, and between
1898 and 1932, another 70,000 Canary Islanders arrived.
The descendants of those travelers maintain some of their customs and
gather at the Association that bears the name of Jose Marti's mother,
Leonor Perez.
In the main building, there's a cultural folk night every Thursday, with
typical dances and songs although the average age of the regulars is
over 60 and the younger ones rarely come, says an employee of the place.
"They are older people, most of them with economic needs," she explains
to 14ymedio. "They need food and basic products like vitamins,
disposable diapers, bedsore creams, wheelchairs or walkers. But we are
less and less able to help them, because they've cut off a lot of the
aid to us," she adds.
"When they are helpless we have to send them to the Church, because this
Association is going through a bad time. We can barely help them and we
also have to prepare the activities we hold here," she confessed. "This
building consumes a tremendous amount of resources and keeping the doors
open every day is a heroic task."
Upstairs, sales of food and drink try to raise some cash. Coffee, soft
drinks, chicken and garbanzo Milanese, says the menu board. But the food
service isn't enough to stop the institution's decline. A deterioration
hardly noticeable to the newcomer, dazzled by the majesty of the
interior and the recently painted façade.
The Association has around 47,000 members throughout the country, and
those who are able pay 12 Cuban pesos a month in dues. This money is
barely enough to run the building, a few yards from the most luxurious
hotels in Havana's historic center, nor to maintain the association's 14
houses across the country.
In mid-2014, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the government of
the Canary Islands sent three grants worth 16,000, 9,000 and 6,000 euros
for the Association, intended for a day care center for the elderly, the
purchase of medications, and repairs and improvements to the Guines
headquarters. But the resources were quickly depleted due to high
demand, according to internal sources.
The president of the Association, Carmelo Gonzalez Acosta, traveled to
the Canaries this January to remind its public administration of the
need to maintain the aid and interviewed the Deputy Minister of Foreign
Action, Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza, with a view to "recovering the support
of the Community Administration toward those who have Canary Island
blood in their veins," reported local media.
The Cuban authorities also asked the Canary Island government to help
them by sending a stone mill to supply Canary descendants with gofio
(flour made from roasted grains), the Cuban consul in the Canary
Islands, Ulises Barquin, explained recently in an interview.
The official explained that the gofio disappeared "at the end of the
1980s with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which was the main
supplier of wheat," but now they want to restart the production because
"it goes far beyond the food aspect… it has an enormous symbolic value."
The mill sounds like a distant promise to those who spend their hours in
the spacious facility in Monserrate Street. "Before, you could come here
and eat very cheaply, but we've lost a lot of options," complains an old
man. "Now they don't sell custard and rice pudding for us, which I can't
eat any more because my sugar is through the roof."
Paco, a Cuban son of the Canaries, feels grateful for being able to
count on a place to "meet friends and have a good time." His two sons
emigrated to get Spanish nationality and now the old man waits to "have
a place in the Canary Island vault in Havana's Columbus Cemetery,"
because his family "doesn't have a proper tomb."
A woman walks through the wide gate and asks the receptionist if there
will be a feast for Easter. Her name is María Antonia Hernández, she is
56 years old and she is the granddaughter of a Canary Islander who came
to the Island at the beginning of the 20th century. "He came looking for
a better life and ended up owning a bodega in San Antonio de los Baños,"
says the woman. "A short time later he married a woman from Pinar del
Rio and they had eight children."
Roberto Domínguez, author of the book Ariguanabo: History, Music and
Poetry, says that "the behavior, the character and the way of being of
Cubans is very linked to the Canary Islands." He calculates that at
present in Cuba "there are at least 650,000 Canary Islanders of their
descendants.
When she was a child and was annoyed by something, Maria Antonia
Hernandez's mother repeated with a sneer that she was acting like an
"islander" like her grandfather. Although Cuba is also subject to "the
damn circumstances of water everywhere," according to the poet and
playwright Virgilio Pinera, Cubans rarely self-define as islanders. In
the popular language "islander" is reserved for those from the Canary
Islands.
"We are the few who called them by their place of origin, because the
rest of the Spaniards call them Galicians," reflects the granddaughter
of the old man. "He had a lot of friends who came from villages close to
his and he loved to eat ropa vieja, but with garbanzos," she recalls.
Hernandez tried to obtain Spanish nationality through the Law of
Historical Memory, popularly known as the Law of Grandchildren, but
failed to complete the paperwork with all the required documents. "My
grandfather came to this country with just his clothes and always gave
very little importance to the papers," she laments.
Failure to obtain a European Community Passport has meant a severe
economic blow for her. Earlier this month the Spanish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Cooperation announced the subsistence allowances for
2017, support that would have been very welcome to María Antonia
Hernandez, who is retired with the equivalent of 10 euros per month.
Others have been luckier than this descendant of a Canary
Islander. According to Cuba's National Statistics Institute (INE), as of
January 2015, 119,662 Spaniards resided in Cuba, the vast majority of
them Cubans who obtained Spanish nationality through the law of
grandchildren. In 2014 alone, some 5,618 nationals received their
European Community passport through that route.
Maria Antonia's grandfather was never able to return to his homeland.
"He died a few days after the events of the Port of Mariel," the
migratory crisis that led thousands of Cubans to escape the island in
1980 and that came to be known in the United States as the Mariel
Boatlift. "He would not have believed that the country he had come to
would have turned out like this."
"The bodega was nationalized and suffered directly from the shortage of
things that he liked most: tobacco, gofio and sardines," recalls Maria
Antonia. As an inheritance he left her an old mahogany wardrobe and a
three-string guitar that he played in country parties.
From Island to Island
José Luis Mosqueda is president of the Association of Cuban Residents in
Gran Canaria, the second largest of the Canary Islands. The entity "was
created six years ago and is meant to bring together the majority of
Cubans" who reside on that other island, he comments to 14ymedio.
The group has 112 members and the last public event they celebrated was
for the anniversary of José Martí, when they took flowers to a bust of
him in Telde. "The mother of José Martí was from Tenerife, but her
ancestors, the grandparents, were from San Mateo, in Gran Canaria,"
Mosqueda proudly remarks.
Consul Ulises Barquín estimates that there are some 22,700 Cubans spread
over the seven islands that make up the archipelago, "although 25 to 30%
of them are not physically here" because "they left with the economic
crisis or they repatriated themselves after Cuba changed its controls on
travel and migration, in January 2013, eliminating the requirement for
an exit permit to leave the country.
"In actual numbers, we are around 15-16,000 Cubans living in the Canary
Islands, with Tenerife having the most," and 95% of them are
regularized, says the consul.
Mosqueda emigrated to Gran Canaria 26 years ago. His sister is married
to "a Canarian of those who went to Cuba to avoid military service
during the Spanish Civil War," he says. In 1961 they decided to return
and soon the brother joined them.
When he arrived he began to work "in a company that polishes parquet and
granite, with a friend of the family." Later, he became independent and
created "a building and renovation business," he adds. He then set up an
aluminum workshop where he has been working for 15 years.
The association that he leads, Mosqueda says, brings together those who
"continue to believe that they are really Cuban and still love Cuba."
Source: Canary Islanders in Cuba, Islanders Two Ways / 14ymedio, Zunilda
Mara and Daniel Delisau – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/canary-islanders-in-cuba-islanders-two-ways-14ymedio-zunilda-mara-and-daniel-delisau/
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