They call him “Manolo 440” because a few years ago he had an electrocution accident in a building under construction. He managed to survive and has since been given the nickname of the voltage that almost killed him. He was lucky, unlike the 89 people who died in Cuba last year in one of the 11 work accidents that occur every day on the Island.
Shortly before April 28, World Occupational Safety and Health Day, a worker painting the façade of the Hotel Plaza in Havana stumbled and fell two floors onto the street. He had no protective gear but was lucky and was taken to the hospital.
The United Nations counts 6,300 people who die every day in the world due to accidents or work-related illnesses. There are more than 317 million work accidents annually. But that data is only a part of it.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) has called for eradicating the practice of “massaging” the numbers and this year is leading an intensive campaign in which it insists that it is essential for countries to improve “their ability to collect and use reliable data on safety and health in Work (SST).”
In Cuba, information on this scourge is rarely addressed in the press, although in recent years the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI) has published some figures. According to this state agency, in 2016 occupational accidents totaled 3,576 (144 more than in the previous year). Havana leads the list of provinces with 27 deaths.
The head of the Department of Occupational Safety and Health at the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS), Angel San Martín Duporté, said a few weeks ago that “66% of accidents are caused by the poor conduct of men and women. ”
However, workers say the principal causes of work accidents are poor organization, the chaotic supply of protective gear and measures, and the incompetence of unions in demanding compliance with safety protocols as the main causes of workplace accidents.
“These boots were brought to me by a relative from Ecuador,” says a sugarcane cutter at the Majibacoa sugar mill in Las Tunas. The man, who preferred to be called Ricardo to avoid reprisals, said agricultural workers in the area are subject to frequent “cuts on their hands and feet.” He says, “the type of footwear matters a lot, because if it is strong and high the chances of getting cut are smaller.”
All those who work alongside Ricardo are dressed in old military uniforms that were gifts or that they bought in the informal market. “They do not give us adequate clothes and when it does come the sizes are too small or too large,” the cane cutter complains. “We have had colleagues who don’t even have a hat and have gotten sun stroke, with dizziness, headaches and even vomiting,” he emphasizes.
Cuba has been in the headlines these past few weeks regarding President Trump’s upcoming announcement on whether or not he will rescind most or all of Obama’s tragically failed Cuba policy. What most Americans don’t know and the media will not tell them about Cuba, however, is that it’s a totalitarian hellhole where 11-million people are enslaved by a murderously repressive dictatorship.
It is an undeniable fact that Cuba’s apartheid Castro dictatorship is solely behind the misery and suffering on the island. But for Americans who just can’t understand why we don’t have relations with the Castro regime, the reality of life in communist Cuba is completely lost on them. In part because they simply don’t care, but also because the media makes certain they never hear anything negative about Cuba’s apartheid regime.
Life In Communist Cuba Is Nothing Like What Most Americans Have Heard
Communists took another beautiful, prosperous country and ran it to the ground. President Trump should force Cuba’s sickening human rights violations into the open.
There is some talk going around that President Trump is planning to roll back former President Obama’s policies towards Cuba. If so, he will hopefully insist on human rights, particularly for the political prisoners and dissidents like the Ladies in White and Yoani Sanchez.
I was ten when my parents put me on a plane bound for Miami. Before passengers left the airport in Havana, the Communists would strip each of all valuables. Children were not exempt. When they saw I had an American quarter, they pounced on it. Let me tell you, no one’s greedier than a Communist.
In 1959 when dictator Fulgencio Batista left the island, the country was happy. People thought life would improve. Instead, within a year, life began to get worse. Suddenly, food became scarce—in Cuba, of all places! And not just food, everything: shoes, toothpaste, books, deodorant, cars, gasoline, furniture, comic books, toys, nails, pencils, hammers. Store shelves were empty. People had to form long lines when a store got a shipment. To make things worse, there were always the stooges in line who would start pro-government chants, which everybody was expected to join.
The Soviet Union would send stuff over, like cans of food teeming with deadly botulism. People learned to avoid Soviet food unless they had a death wish. They also sent Soviet films, which were so bad, so plotless, so mind-numbing, that they would empty movie theaters. Even the mice would scurry away.
The Terrors Were Mental as Well as Physical
And there was the persecution, the paranoia. In every street block there was one official informer who would stick his nose into everyone’s business, especially having an ear out for any comments the regime might disapprove.
The schools added a new innovation to education: brainwashing. The new regime wasn’t just praised by the teachers and the textbooks. Children were encouraged to spy on and denounce their parents to their teacher if they overheard a wrong comment. The teacher would then pass on the information to the newly created secret police.
Children were told to close their eyes and ask God for a toy, then open their eyes. Nothing. Then they were told to close their eyes ask Fidel Castro for a toy. A toy would be put on their desks and they were told to open their eyes. Christmas was abolished.
Cubans began to learn the literal meaning of totalitarianism. The regime’s grip was on every facet of society: politics, literature, art, economy, entertainment, food, social affairs. It was total. By contrast, in the run-of-the-mill dictatorship, if you did not mess with the government, the government did not mess with you. In fact, if you were oblivious to politics, you did not even know it was there, but with totalitarianism, there was no escape, no privacy. The regime wanted your labor, your money, your children, your soul.
The U.N. Human Rights Council whitewashes brutality
The president of Venezuela, whose government shoots protesters in the street, recently thanked the international community for its “universal vote of confidence” in that country’s commitment to human rights.
The Cuban deputy foreign minister, whose government imprisons thousands of political opponents, once said Cuba has historic prestige “in the promotion and protection of all human rights.”
How can these people get away with saying such things? Because they have been elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose members are — on paper — charged with “upholding the highest standards” of human rights.
Last month, a U.S. Senate subcommittee met to consider whether the United States should remain a part of the council. Expert witnesses shared their viewpoints, not on the question of whether America supports human rights — of course we do, and very strongly. The question was whether the Human Rights Council actually supports human rights or is merely a showcase for dictatorships that use their membership to whitewash brutality.
When the council focuses on human rights instead of politics, it advances important causes. In North Korea, its attention has led to action on human rights abuses. In Syria, it has established a commission on the atrocities of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
All too often, however, the victims of the world’s most egregious human rights violations are ignored by the very organization that is supposed to protect them.
Venezuela is a member of the council despite the systematic destruction of civil society by the government of Nicolás Maduro through arbitrary detention, torture and blatant violations of freedom of the press and expression. Mothers are forced to dig through trash cans to feed their children. This is a crisis that has been 18 years in the making. And yet, not once has the Human Rights Council seen fit to condemn Venezuela.
Cuba’s government strictly controls the media and severely restricts the Cuban people’s access to the Internet. Thousands are arbitrarily detained each year, with some political prisoners serving long sentences. Yet Cuba has never been condemned by the council; it, too, is a member.
The world would rather forget the Tiananmen Square massacre. Therefore, it is up to all victims of communism’s murderous oppression to continue remembering and honoring the memory of those who stood up for freedom and whose lives were extinguished by this vile and deadly ideology.
In memory of those who stood up for their rights, lost their lives and for those still unjustly imprisoned today in China.
Students peacefully demonstrating in Tiananmen in 1989
Tiananmen Square and the events of June 1989 remain a censored topic in mainland China, but now one finds that “mistaken” censorship is also taking place outside of communist China. On May 11, 2017 The Wall Street Journal reported in the article “China Tells Facebook to ‘Come Learn From Us’ on Censoring Content ” that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg “has tried everything” to get Facebook Inc unblocked in China. Days later on May 26, 2017 Facebook rejected a Hong Kong activist’s profile picture frame referencing the Tiananmen massacre. Following an outcry Facebook apologized and approved the image.
What are so many so desperate to forget?
Twenty eight years ago the Communist leadership of China opened fire on the Chinese people. The Pro-Democracy Movement that had taken to the streets in April of 1989 was violently crushed by the Chinese communist dictatorship beginning on the evening of June 3, 1989. By dawn on June 4, 1989 scores of demonstrators had been shot and killed or run over and crushed by tanks of the so-called People’s Liberation Army, the blood of students and workers splattered and flowed in the streets of Beijing. The Chinese Red Cross had initially counted 2,600 dead when they were pressured to stop by Chinese officials and silenced on this matter.
Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate, is currently jailed for his continued non-violent activism but had already served a prison sentence for his participation in the 1989 Tiananmen student protest. On June 2, 1989 Liu Xiaobo and three others entered Tiananmen Square and started a hunger strike at 5:00pm reading a lengthy proclamation excerpted below:
We start our hunger strike. We protest. We call upon people. We repent. We are not looking for death, we are looking for the true life. Under the irrational militant violence by the Li Peng regime, Chinese intellectuals must end their all-words-but-no-action tradition of osteomalacia. We must protest the military rule with our actions. We must give birth to a brand new political culture with our own actions.
Powerful international interests sided with the Beijing dictatorship and helped to perpetuate totalitarian rule in China. One high profile example at the time was former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who persuaded the Bush Administration to downplay the human rights considerations surrounding the Beijing Massacre and to focus on the economic and strategic relationship. One month after the massacre on July 4, 1989 George H.W. Bush sent a secret high level delegation to meet with the Chinese regime and join with them in celebrating American independence.
Through 378 ruling, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice decided to turn Venezuela into a monarchy. The Constitutional Chamber settled a demand to interpret articles 347 and 348 of the Constitution by claiming that a consultative referendum prior to convening the Constituent Assembly is neither required nor constitutionally binding, since Nicolás “is acting on behalf of popular sovereignty.”
Transcending the concept of the “Father” that CNE rectora Socorro Hernández talked about on Tuesday, now we have a king who trashes protagonic democracy, regressively interpreting the Constitution, imposing a fraud and disregarding the sovereignty of Venezuelan citizens.
The Colección Bicentenario’s elementary 4th grade book on Social Studies clearly explains that there can’t be any Constituyente without prior election, but the TSJ’s justices ignore this rule.
The same Constitutional Chamber accepted lawsuits against mayors José Luis Machín (Barinas) and Gustavo Marcano (Anzoátegui), so now there are 12 opposition mayors under attack for allowing protests in their municipalities.
To the Foreign Ministry
The opposition proposed on Tuesday that anyone who could get there on their own should do so. That’s the option we picked yesterday. The National Guard officers posted on the area were so relaxed, there was no doubt in our minds that the march wouldn’t reach its destination. Loud joropos poorly performed by el finado blurted out of the executive offices, while downtown Caracas was a vivid image of a country in recession: many stores closed, people wandering, criminals watching along the streets and SEBIN ready to clear anyone who spends more than 30 seconds before Miraflores.
Protests in Ciudad Bolívar (The Great Eastern March) in which students and professors honored those killed during protests and the Mega tractorazo that took place in Turén municipality, Portuguesa state, were impressive.
In a sad contrast, the GN and the PNB assaulted almost every spot in Caracas where people managed to come together to march, once again setting up ambushes, chasing down, arresting and wounded several protesters with pellets, marbles and even metal bolts, lawmaker Tomás Guanipa denounced.
Tragedies
A marble entered the abdomen of young Jonel Pestana while he protested in Altamira. He underwent surgery and is now out of danger. Once more, security forces fired tear-gas canisters at close range, hitting a worker in the face in Las Mercedes. 39 people wounded were reported by Salud Chacao and 53 by Salud Baruta (6:00 p.m.) with concussions, pellets, asphyxia and marbles. At least three apartments caught fire in Parque Las Américas, a residential complex in Mérida, when the GN brutally rained tear-gas on them. Francisco Bruzco, photojournalist for Crónica Uno, was robbed yesterday (the event as caught on camera by El Pitazo) along with Luis Robayo (photographer for AFP news agency,) while Kenyer Jaramillo, producer for RCR, was arrested and later released.
Do we Cubans still need permission to enter state establishments?
I recently went to buy cigarrettes at the Ruinas del Parque bar-restaurant, located on the corner of Obispo and Aguacate, in Old Havana. I said “good afternoon” to the doorman, and headed towards the bar, but I was intercepted. Without the least demonstration of courtesy, the doorman asked me where I was going.
Flustered by both his question and rude tone, I asked him whether I needed permission to frequent an establishment open to all.
“The Cubans grew ignorant, and now they want to trample everything,” was his reply. Sporting a guayabera and with a martial bearing, he failed to explain what my ignorance consisted of, or what exactly I was trampling.
Ruinas del Parque, a bar-restaurant with open-air tables, is part of a whole series of state-owned businesses located within Havana’s historic center. Decades back they served foreign tourists almost exclusively, the high prices of their products and services making them inaccessible to everyone else.
As I shared my anecdote with workers at several private bars and restaurants, also located within the historic quarter, I recalled an often-overlooked reflection: the rise of Socialist Cuba entailed a tradition of vague and ambiguous laws and regulations.
When they are not applied due to ineffectiveness or political disagreement – in the best cases – they are subject to individual interpretation, and serve the interests of the higher-ups of the Communist Party (PCC), who run corporations and ministries as if they were principalities.
“Let’s not forget that, even though the ban restricting access to hotels and tourist services was repealed years ago, we are still not seen in these places as customers, but rather as a nuisance, or as potential hustlers,” said chef Rogelito Linares.
According to Dalia Ferrer, an expert soda maker, the reasons for the doorman’s attitude range from incompetence to prejudice and racism.
“In any case, the question was offensive, as well as counterproductive in this type of profession. The elegant way is simple: establish a cordial dialogue by returning the greeting, and informing the potential customer about the products that can be enjoyed at the business,” she said.
Gauging how deeply our social fabric has been damaged by the wedge driven by the Government between Cubans and foreigners (even going so far as to incarcerate Cubans who tried to breach it) is no simple exercise. The doorman’s question and tone serve as a reminder: the abolition of a law that discriminated against us is all for naught if we do not stand up for ourselves and speak out.
President Donal Trump has been consulting with U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on revamping U.S. policy toward Cuba’s corrupt apartheid dictatorship. Unlike his predecessor Barack Obama, who ignored and avoided any input from Cuban Americans in congress when he crafted his seriously flawed and failed Cuba policy, Trump is apparently talking to folks who can provide a crucial and much-needed dose of reality to the equation.
As one would expect, any Cuba policy based on truth and the reality on the island today is bound to be drastically different from Obama’s Cuba policy, which is based on fantasy and wishful thinking.
Republicans U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and Sen. Marco Rubio have been discussing changes in Cuba policy with the administration. Both are considered top congressional advisers on the subject and both criticized former president Barack Obama’s attempts to improve relations with Cuba as weak.
Diaz-Balart, generally considered more hardline in his approach to Cuba, has called for blocking U.S. business dealings with companies financially supported by that country’s military or intelligence agencies. Diaz-Balart unsuccessfully offered the proposal in 2016 budget language.
If interpreted broadly, his proposal could shut down practically all travel to Cuba because the military controls the ports and airlines and a majority of hotels, said John Kavulich, senior policy adviser to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
“That’s unlikely to happen,” said Kavulich.
Instead, any policy affecting U.S. business dealings in Cuba is expected to be more narrowly drawn, he said.
Trump’s changes likely won’t go as far as some Cuban-Americans in Florida would like.
“While I don’t expect them to agree with everything I want, I’m grateful that they listen,” said Diaz-Balart. “I believe a drastically different deal with Cuba is imminent.”
Rubio’s positions are considered more moderate, Kavulich said, and in line with the broader interests of the U.S. business community that has expressed concerns about some proposals. Those include increasing U.S. travel enforcement to Cuba, reversing the ability to travel alone to the country and discouraging U.S. businesses from ventures with Cuban companies tied to the military.
Changes in U.S. Cuba travel policy would likely decrease the number of Americans traveling to the country and hurt local businesses.
Lee McCarthy, owner of MAD Travel in Naples, said his travel agency arranges trips to the island through licensed companies and serves U.S. clients who enjoy traveling alone to Cuba.
“Several years ago you had to go with a tour and a group and that would be a turn-off to a lot of people,” McCarthy said.
After decades of intense contact, the Russians left few footprints in Cuba. Some young people with the names Vladimir or Natacha, or the nesting matrioshka dolls decorating a few rooms, are the last vestiges of that relationship. However, in recent years the links between Havana and Moscow have gained strength. The Kremlin is back.
Russia has long been disembarking in Latin America into the hands of those same governments that in international forums demand a greater respect for sovereignty and “the free choice of the people.” Its populist leaders, in part to annoy the United States, make alliances with Vladimir Putin under the premise that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
That type of partnership allowed Venezuela’s Miraflores Palace to be equipped with 5,000 shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS), according to a document recently published by Reuters. The arsenal began to be accumulated in the time of the late President Hugo Chavez, but is more dangerous now amid the political instability that is leading Nicholas Maduro to falter.
In Central America, Nicaragua functions as the gateway for the voracious superpower. Daniel Ortega has about 50 combat tanks sent by Moscow and his territory serves as a site for Russian military advisers. The corrupt system of the Sandinistas creates a favorable scenario for the former KGB official’s desire for expansion.
However, Havana remains Russia’s main ally on this side of the world. The suspicion that arose between the two countries, after the dismemberment of the Soviet Union and the coming to power of Boris Yeltsin, has been dissipating. With Putin in command, something of the USSR has been reborn and diplomatic ties are tightening again.
In the neighborhood of Miramar, west of the Cuban capital, the Russian embassy seems to have become more prominent in the last five years. Shaped like a sword plunged into the city’s heart, the building is jokingly called “the control tower,” from where the stern stepmother scrutinizes everything that occurs in her former and yearned-for domain.
Alberto de la Cruz 
