Alberto de la Cruz

Glenda Boza Ibarra writes in El Toque via Havana Times:

Cuba’s Ration Booklet Nightmares: Coffee

It’d be great for Cubans if it started raining coffee. Coffee and a lot of other things. But the beverage, which is essential for many (so essential that it’s the only thing lots of families have for breakfast), is the latest thing to go missing.

It’s been a long time since most Cubans have drunk a good cup of coffee. Of pure coffee, without substitutes, nor it being too watery.

An ounce of coffee (from the bodega store, or roasted and ground by private sellers) sells for over 30 pesos on the street; a pound of coffee beans over 300 pesos; a cup of coffee costs more than 20 pesos; and a 1 kg packet of Serrano coffee (made in Cuba), for example, sells for over 20 MLC (magnetic dollars and well over 4000 pesos according to the exchange rate on the illicit market).

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Garrincha in Matraca:

The Castro dictatorship’s sock puppet president quoting murderous psychopath Che Guevara at the UN this week is a clear indication that violence in Cuba is as prevalent today as it was back then.

John Suarez has a partial history of that violence in Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter:

A partial history of violence in Castro’s Cuba

Miguel Diaz-Canel began his address to the UN General Assembly on September 19, 2023 by quoting Che Guevara in a speech he gave in “this very room almost 60 years ago” referencing the “exploited and the humiliated” of the South. He left out the Argentine guerilla’s more honest appraisal of what the Cuban Revolution was doing on December 11, 1964.

“We must say here something that is a well-known truth and that we have always asserted before the whole world: Executions? Yes, we have executed people; we are executing people and shall continue to execute people as long as it is necessary.”

Diaz-Canel rejected Cuba being a State Sponsor of terrorism claiming there were no grounds to the charge. Ignoring the Tricontinental gathering in Havana bringing terrorists, and guerrillas from around the world to engage in systematic violent attacks against Western democracies.

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Yet another glorious triumph of the socialist revolution in communist Cuba.

Via Diario de Cuba (my translation):

Long waits and few options: Getting around has always been a headache for the residents of the Cuban capital.

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Five Cuban women have defected while competing abroad in the last few days, escaping slavery to the communist Castro dictatorship. The defections by the women add to the growing number of Cuban athletes who have decided to break free from the communist regime’s chains, who uses them as propaganda tools and slave labor.

In Paris, wrestling gold medalist Hangelen Llanes, who was in France for training, decided she had had enough of indentured servitude and a life with no future under the control of the Castro dictatorship. When her team got ready to travel to Serbia for a competition, Hangelen was nowhere to be found (via CubaNet – my translation):

Cuban wrestler Hangelen Llanes, gold medalist in the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games in the 68-kilogram category, has stayed in Paris in the last few days.

The athlete was in the French capital at a training base, preparing for the World Wrestling Championship in Belgrade, Serbia, which she would travel to from Paris, along with the rest of the team.

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14yMedio reports from Havana via Translating Cuba:

The G-77 Summit in Cuba Has Ended, and the Blackouts Return With a New Breakdown in La Guiteras

A few hours had passed since the closing of the G-77 plus China Summit, held in Havana, when the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, located in Matanzas, left the National Electricity System (SEN), which this Sunday had a deficit of 274 megawatts (MW); today, Monday,  it foresees the lack of 525 MW. “The Intelligent thermocouple only worked during the summit. When it was ended, we had an unforeseen event,” one of the dozens of customers who protested against this Monday’s report from the Electric Union commented with irony.

The breakdown of the Guiteras, around nine o’clock this Sunday night, was initially announced by several official journalists on their social networks. “The Antonio Guiteras CTE left the National Electric System unexpectedly. Electricity service begins to be affected due to a generation capacity deficit,” Lázaro Manuel Alonso wrote on his Facebook profile.

“The summit ended and the blackouts began, a perfect combination. What a coincidence,” commented a user with sarcasm on the page of the Electric Union, which did not offer the cause of the breakage in the Matanzas plant. “Díaz-Canel took the light to New York,” added another, alluding to the Cuban president’s trip to the United States just a few hours ago.

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By Alen Lauzán via Mazzantini Magazine:

The following story is just one in the hundreds of thousands of tragic tales of forced labor and forced exile suffered by Cubans at the hands of the Cuban regime. It’s disturbingly amazing how Cuba’s communist Castro dictatorship can carry on a modern-day slave trading business and the world not only ignores it, they celebrate the slave masters.

Via Worldcrunch:

Forced Labor, Forced Exile: The Cuban Professionals Sent Abroad To Work, Never To Return

Daniela was just one year old when she last played with her father. In a video her mother recorded, the two can be seen lying on the floor, making each other laugh.

Three years have passed since then. Daniela’s sister, Dunia, was born — but she has never met her father in person, only connecting through video calls. Indeed, between 2019 and 2023, the family changed more than the two little girls could understand.

“Dad, are you here yet? I’m crazy excited to talk to you.”

“Dad, I want you to call today and I’m going to send you a kiss.”

“Dad, I want you to come for a long time. I want you to call me; call me, dad.”

Three voice messages which Daniela has left her father, one after the other, on WhatsApp this Saturday. His image appears on the phone screen, and the two both light up.

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Dr. Carlos Eire and I discuss St. Catherine of Siena, a 14th century Dominican nun and affective mystic who was very focused on love and the salvific dimension of Christ’s suffering. St. Catherine was also a stigmatist, theologian, philosopher, and helper to the poor and suffering as well as a highly esteemed peace negotiator and political ambassador, even serving as such for popes.

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The communist Castro dictatorship may have taken 16 years of her life in a gulag, but they were never able to take her dignity. The indomitable Cary Roque was an inspiration for the Cuban exile community and all women. She passed away in Miami on Wednesday at the age of 82, but she leaves behind an incredible legacy of valor and perseverance that we would all do well to follow.

Via CubaNet (my translation):

Journalist and former Cuban political prisoner Cary Roque dies in Miami

Cuban journalist and former political prisoner Cary Roque passed away this Wednesday in Miami at the age of 82. The news was confirmed by Cuban activists and media outlets such as Martí Noticias and América TeVé.

“With deep sadness, we received the terrible news of the passing of a great patriot, journalist, and political prisoner who stood bravely against the Castro tyranny. May your immaculate life story serve as a reference for many of us who raise the flag for the cause of freedom in Cuba as the most sacred and honorable duty,” wrote Facebook user Mike Norton Cordero.

Also on Facebook, Calex Goriv described Roque as “a WARRIOR in capital letters” and “an example of conviction, determination, and principles” who “gave her life for a land that (…) she departs this world without seeing it free as she dreamed, fought, and yearned for.”

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