…an island on the net without a bearded dictator
From our Bureau of Lethal Nostalgia
In 1957, when Tres Fotutos was in first grade, he never saw this ad, and he wasn’t able to sample the product being peddled. But the good Christian Brothers at La Salle de Miramar did warn him to avert his gaze from such images, and to abstain from alcoholic beverages, lest he risk ending up in Purgatory for millennia, or maybe even in Hell for eternity.
A vanished world, for sure, in all respects. Replaced by something truly hellish.
From our Bureau of Socialist Compassion and Social Justice with some help from our Bureau of Socialist Healthcare in Dungeons
Ay! No surprise here, but the news is still very disturbing. While some imprisoned prominent dissidents such as Felix Navarro get some attention from Cuba’s independent journalists, the vast majority of their fellow prisoners are ignored.
Here is one attempt to remedy the imbalance being made by one dissident association. Unfortunately, this report can do nothing to improve the real situation faced by prisoners.
In Havana province alone, there are 211 July 11 protesters behind bars. In Matanzas, near the oil depot fire, the number is 83.
Loosely translated from Cubanos Por El Mundo
The Justice 11J working group expressed concern about the health status of 439 July 11 protesters (11J) who remain behind bars, specifically from the provinces of Artemisa, Havana, Matanzas and Mayabeque.
Through a statement issued on social networks, Justice 11J indicated that this concern has increased after the great fire that is still active at the Matanzas Supertanker Base.
“We remember that prisons across the country were already overcrowded and unsanitary. Possible evacuation scenarios, although urgent, could trigger even more damage to people’s health, if the pertinent measures are not taken,” the working group specified.
Justice 11J highlights the case of the political prisoner Félix Navarro, 69 years old, who is isolated in the infirmary of the Agüica prison, in Colón, Matanzas, because he tested positive for COVID-19.
The working group indicated that it was generally concerned about the health and physical integrity of all Cuban political prisoners held in different prisons of the Castro regime.
continue reading HERE in Spanish
From our Socialist Light and Power Bureau
As the Matanzas fire continues to rage and the power plant next to the inferno is shut down, Castro, Inc. keeps announcing crippling power blackouts throughout the island.
Experts acknowledge that this problem has no immediate solution due to the obsolescence of Cuba’s power plants and the magnitude of their disrepair. Basically, until new power plants can be built, the blackouts will continue.
Below is an account of protests in Holguin, one of the many cities where protests have been held.
Loosely translated from Cubanos Por El Mundo
Cubans in the city of Holguín took to the streets once again to protest against the blackouts that affect them every night and during the day as well.
Through social networks they have published images and videos in which a group of Antilleans are seen shouting slogans against the regime and phrases such as: “Turn on the current, pinga”, [Cuban expletive for male genitalia] “Hey, police, pinga”, “we can’t stand it anymore more”, among other expressions.
In the videos, which are seen more clearly than on other occasions, a group of people can be seen demonstrating peacefully in the streets, some families with children, and others watching and recording the situation.
Cubans have not stopped demanding their rights and the restoration of electricity. Since June they have carried out nightly protests against the blackouts and the shortages that affect the entire country, of medicines, food and other services.
Many young Cubans who are tired of living in misery and without a vision of a future for themselves and their families participate in these peaceful protests.
From our Bureau of Socialist Disaster Management
Four days after a bolt of lightning started a fire at the Matanzas bay oil depot, the raging inferno keeps intensifying, spewing toxic smoke over a very wide area. Thousands have been evacuated and the city of Matanzas has been turned into a ghost town.
Meanwhile, fears about toxic rain and other environmental hazards hang over everyone under the colossal smoke cloud. Many of the injured are still hospitalized and the remains of missing firefighters who are presumed dead have yet to be found.
The only bit of potentially good news is that a firefighting ship from Mexico has arrived.
For a full day-by-day rundown on the disaster go HERE for several articles in Spanish
Loosely translated from Periódico Cubano
Four tanks are currently affected by the fire, one of which was emptied before the flames reached it. (Collage: Irene Pérez-Cubadebate)
The fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, which started last Friday, August 5, continues out of control and, unfortunately, its intensity has increased in recent hours.
“It has taken a greater magnitude, four tanks of 50,000 (cubic meters) each are already compromised,” said Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Ávalos Jorge, Second Chief of the National Extinction Department of the Cuban Fire Department, at a press conference.
He explained that what happened “has been a chain reaction since the first tank burned and exploded at dawn on Saturday.” At this time, firefighters and other forces are focused on terminal 321, where the tanks for clear products (gasoline) are located, to prevent the flames from spreading further.
Ávalos Jorge indicated “it is impossible to make an exact calculation of how long the work will take. It can take days.” He specified that “the fire is developing in a very complicated situation, taking into account the high temperatures and the air that has hit us a lot, since it favors it and develops it in a superior way, and that has meant that we cannot do more. actions with better results.
On the other hand, the lieutenant colonel said that the ‘Antonio Guiteras’ Thermoelectric Power Plant “is not in danger from the fire.” “We are taking, in any case, all the measures, and for the moment there is no need to worry about that very important unit,” he added.
continue reading HERE in Spanish
From our Bureau of Socialist Tolerance, Social Justice, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity
The numbers speak for themselves. Data collected by Prisoners Defenders
From August 1, 2021 to July 31, 2022, a total of 1,251 political prisoners have suffered political imprisonment in Cuba. All of them are tortured, as demonstrated by the detailed study of 101 random cases denounced by Prisoners Defenders before the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) and the public reproaches of the CAT after the complaints from civil society, which materialized in its subsequent May report on the situation of torture in Cuba. The report of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, this past June, also confirmed that numerous boys and girls have been arrested and sentenced to very harsh sentences for exercising their freedom of demonstration and “association”.
At this specific moment, with data closing as of July 31, 2022, the list of political prisoners in Cuba contains a total of 1,002 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience suffering judicial sentences, as well as provisions limiting their freedom by the prosecutors without any judicial supervision, in flagrant violation of international law and due process.
Prisoners Defenders has been able to verify a list of 1,002 political prisoners as of 07/31/2022 (VER). Of the 1,002 political prisoners, the following are still serving sentences or precautionary measures:
32 boys and 6 girls, 38 minors in total.
4 girls and 22 boys, 26 minors, have already been sentenced, 16 of them for “Sedition”, to an average sentence of 5 years in prison, after the “reductions” in the appeal and cassation processes.
171 demonstrators, including 16 girls and boys, have already been sentenced for “Sedition”.
697 sentenced prisoners of conscience are still on the list with sentences between 1 and 25 years.
Other political prisoners carry sentences of 30 years and up to life imprisonment (12 of them)
At least 122 women (including those of the trans gender) still have political and conscientious orders and sentencesContinue reading HERE in Spanish
From our Bureau of Socialist Real Estate Bargains
Hey! Don’t pass up this opportunity. After 63 years, seven months, and eight days of socialist totalitarianism, this Cuban pictured below is ready to seek greener pastures. And he is selling his magnificent house and his Chinese bicycle or simply trading them for a one-way plane ticket to Nicaragua.
Such a deal. This perfect vacation cottage give a whole new meaning to the woke buzzword “equity.”
Picture yourself shirtless and barefoot, enjoying the soft tropical breezes on this shady porch as you sip mow-hee-toes and day-kee-rees. And just imagine what a view you will have of toxic plumes of black smoke if your local oil depot happens to catch on fire, just like the one in Matanzas. Epic, man, truly epic. Socialism is the future!
From our Weapons of Mass Distraction Bureau
While the inferno in Matanzas keeps raging and the news media devote most of their attention to it, Castro, Inc. continues to carry on as usual, and this, of course, includes its constant persecution of dissidents.
So, while the fire gets all the attention, the venerable dissident Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas is imprisoned somewhere. The arrest took place on Friday, and now –three days later — there is no word on his whereabouts. His crime? He intended to join a demonstration. Preventive harassment is completely legal in Castrogonia, where one can be arrested and imprisoned for “potential dangerousness.”
No one is paying attention, naturally. Let’s see what happens next.
Loosely translated from Marti Noticias
Dissident Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas, was arrested at his home in Santa Clara by State Security agents to prevent him from going out to demonstrate and released at night.
Her daughter, Haissa Fariñas, told Radio Televisión Martí that the State Security agents knew in advance that her father intended to demonstrate this Friday and the order “was to prevent it.”
“Until now we do not know specifically where they have him arrested or rather the location of it,” said the opponent to this wording.
Alicia Hernández, Fariñas’s mother, told Radio Martí that her son was arrested when he was preparing to go out into the street in the morning. “When I looked out I saw the patrol, but well I saw him in passing, he was already inside (of the patrol),” she explained.
Mrs. Hernández assured that as soon as the agents see her son’s willingness to leave, “they immediately come for him.” “He does not resist any of that, there is no force or anything, they put the handcuffs on him and leave,” she explained.
She lamented that the authorities never inform her where he is transferred and that it is the opponent himself who, after being released, tells her in which police unit he was detained.
See photo above. Watch video of this event HERE, which will allow you to hear this bishop singing hymns of forgiveness, peace, mercy, and the old-time favorite of persecuted Catholics in the Hispanic world: “Reine Jesus Por Siempre.”
Papa Che has not uttered a word about this, which is only the latest of many instances of outright persecution of Catholics by Nicaragua’s socialist dictatorship, a campaign of harassment that includes “.the siege of priests and bishops, the expulsion of members of religious communities, the desecration of temples and the closure of radio stations.”
Maybe his silence has something to do with his preferential option for leftist dictatorships. Yeah, maybe. Remember, Cuba is “a symbol” and King Raul is a friend with whom he has a “human relationship.”
Loosely translated from Cubanos Por El Mundo
The injustice of a bishop who remains held in Nicaragua is being “ignored” by Pope Francis, which represents one more example of his complicity with the dictatorships, in this case, especially with Nicaragua.
Meanwhile, a group of bishops have shown their support and concern for Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, of the Diocese of Matagalpa in Nicaragua.
The aforementioned bishop has been locked up under house arrest in the curia of that town for four days by the security forces of the Nicaraguan regime and affirmed that the police accuse him of allegedly “inciting hatred”, for that reason he is in a house condition for jail.
“The latest events, such as the siege of priests and bishops, the expulsion of members of religious communities, the desecration of temples and the closure of radio stations, hurt us deeply,” said Peruvian Bishop Miguel Cabrejos, president of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council. (CELAM).
Bishop Rolando Álvarez, 55, is critical of the Daniel Ortega dictatorship and for that reason he is being persecuted by the regime.
It was learned that the police initiated an investigation against the Diocese of Matagalpa, which Álvarez presides over, for allegedly trying to “organize violent groups” and incite “to carry out acts of hatred” to destabilize the country.
In the midst of this injustice, the highest representative of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, avoided speaking on the subject during his homily on Sunday, which represents his complicity with the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, who harasses those who are in his against.
A group of bishops from Latin America have raised their voices against this situation that attacks the Catholic Church and have asked the parishioners for their prayers so that Bishop Rolando Álvarez comes out of this terrible situation.
Despite help from Venezuelan and Mexican firefighters, the fire in Matanzas keeps raging. Castro, Inc., as usual, is filtering all information from the disaster site, so piecing together what can be learned from various sources, the big news is that the third oil tank has exploded.
Other headlines:
Over 4,000 people have been evacuated
17 firefighters “disappeared”, only one corpse has been recovered. Castro, Inc. is not releasing any information on the missing men.
Pope Francis, a.k.a. Papa Che has given a blessing to all who are being affected by this fire.
From Periodico Cubano
The lid of a third tank exposed to the fire at the Supertanker Base in Matanzas has collapsed after the wind changed direction to the Northeast.
The information was confirmed by the official website of the Matanzas government, after a new explosion occurred in the areas surrounding the third fuel tank.
“The risk of it happening, as specified in the previous note, was never ruled out. The forces that worked in the place had been evacuated. The installation of a powerful pump will soon be completed to start spraying both tanks with chemical foam,” the authorities explained.
The fire, at the time of writing these lines, no longer behaves in the form of a column, but rather the wind has laid it horizontally, allowing the fire to spread to other parts of the base.
According to sources close to the incident consulted by Periódico Cubano, the Cuban government’s strategy consisted of preventing the third tank from exploding, consuming the fuel from the second tank and lowering the parameters; then enter to carry out search and rescue work.
Continue reading HERE in Spanish