Granma 302

Reason is our shield

10 months ago Granma, Translations, , ,

EDITORIAL

Reason is our shield (+ Video)

Dignity, resistance and unity are our most powerful forces in the face of the dishonorable and dishonorable annexationist action that serves the historical enemy of the Cuban nation in its plan to fracture and divide us in order to defeat us.

Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu
October 13, 2021 00:10:13 AM

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.


Photo: Yaimí Ravelo
After hard months of the pandemic, of shocking world economic crisis, of intensified and sustained blockade -which have harshly hit our people-, Cuba is beginning to revive its social life, public spaces and services, schools, tourism and other sectors of the economy.

We are already the country in the Americas with the highest percentage of the population with at least one administered dose of the vaccines against COVID-19, the one with the highest daily vaccination rate in the world and the only one that has been able to develop a massive campaign in children from two years of age. All this has been possible due to the country’s capacity to produce its own vaccines, as a result of the scientific policy outlined and promoted by Fidel and the talent of men and women forged by the Revolution.

We are rising up with our own strength, with the unbending spirit, the dignity and the capacity of resistance of our people, with the serene and firm leadership of the country, with the spirit of victory and the creativity that has been cultivated in the midst of so many years of hard battles.

Those who have bet on the failure of Socialism in Cuba and saw July 11[,2021] as the definitive blow to the Revolution, are frustrated and in a hurry in their plans. They intend to prevent any possibility of well-being, individual and collective development, citizen tranquility and peace in our Homeland.

That is why they are promoting various destabilizing actions in the country, to provoke an incident that will lead to a social outbreak that will bring about the longed-for military intervention, which they are vociferously calling for in Miami and even in front of the White House itself.

Neither 62 years of blockade nor its 243 additional measures have been able nor will they be able to bring us down, hence the repeated attempt at a “soft coup”. It is part of the unconventional warfare that they apply to us with intensity. Strike on top of the blow.

In the Central Report to the 8th Party Congress, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz warned:

“The program of subversion and ideological and cultural influence has been redoubled, aimed at discrediting the socialist model of development and presenting us with capitalist restoration as the only alternative.

“The subversive component of U.S. policy toward Cuba is focused on the breakdown of national unity. In that sense, priority is given to actions aimed at young people, women and academics, the artistic and intellectual sector, journalists, athletes, people of sexual diversity and religions. Matters of interest to specific groups linked to animal protection, the environment, or artistic and cultural manifestations are manipulated, all aimed at disregarding existing institutions.

“Act of aggression have not ceased to be financed with the use of radio and television stations based in the United States, while the monetary support for the development of platforms for the generation of ideological contents that openly call to defeat the Revolution. They launch calls for demonstrations in public spaces, incite the execution of sabotage and terrorist acts, including the assassination of agents of public order and representatives of the revolutionary power. Without the slightest modesty, they declare the fees paid from the United States to the executors of these criminal actions.

“Let us not forget that the U.S. government created the “Internet Working Group for Cuba” which aspires to turn social networks into channels of subversion, creation of wireless networks outside state control and the carrying out of cyber attacks on critical infrastructure.

[…]

“Lies, manipulation and the propagation of fake news no longer know any limits. Through them, a virtual image of Cuba as a dying society with no future, on the verge of collapsing and giving way to the longed-for social explosion, is shaped and spread to the four winds.”

Sectors of the traditional counterrevolution and new characters, educated in leadership courses financed by US foundations or the US federal budget, have joined forces to try to fulfill such purposes. They lack a social base in the country, but they are duly instructed, financed and supported from abroad.

The empire puts money and expectations on the annexationists trained by them, who, under the false banner of pacifism, seek to provoke new disturbances, generate chaos and induce the destabilization of the country.

In the last few weeks, they made public their intentions to hold a march in November, supposedly peaceful, designed to take place simultaneously in several cities of the country. Their declared purposes and their organizational scheme reveal a provocation articulated as part of the strategy of “regime change” for Cuba, previously tested in other countries.

They choose dates with a certain symbolism? But this time it seems that they also wanted to show off their annexationist stature. Did they want to celebrate President Biden’s birthday with an attack on the Revolution that has so annoyed imperial administrations for 62 years? They were left wanting.

One of its promoters has been trained in courses sponsored by the right-wing Argentine foundation CADAL, U.S. universities and think tanks such as the Carnegie Fund for International Peace (directed until recently by the current CIA director, William J. Burns). Among the topics of their indoctrination have been the formation of leaders, confrontation against government structures, the dynamics of mobilization, and the role of the Armed Forces in the “democratic transition”.

Last July 11 he was the organizer of an attempted takeover of the ICRT, complying with instruction 167 of the Nonviolent Action Workshop which states: Nonviolent “Attacks”: invasions: starting with a march and taking peaceful possession of a place or property.

More recently he has joined a subversive project in academic garb, in which he shares a seat on its Deliberative Council with the terrorist Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat.

He is accompanied among the organizers of the November demonstration by counterrevolutionary leaders of the so-called Council for the Democratic Transition of Cuba, a platform that is articulated according to the anti-constitutional coup in the country, and who have openly acknowledged receiving funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a front for the U.S. government.

As soon as it was announced by its organizers, the march received public and notorious support from U.S. legislators, political operators of the anti-Cuban mafia and media that encourage actions against the Revolution.

Tweets, declarations, Resistance Assemblies and other frenetic actions fill Miami these days, as if the demonstration were to take place in that city. Regime change, the overthrow of the government and military intervention is once again the prevailing narrative in South Florida.

Among the most fervent supporters of the provocation are Congressmen Marco Rubio, Mario Diaz-Balart and Maria Elvira Salazar; the reconverted terrorist Gutierrez Boronat (who has declared his support for this action “to overthrow the regime”), the Cuban American National Foundation and the mercenary retinue of Brigade 2506, whose president on duty declared in Miami that “With these steps, an explosion will be fomented inside Cuba so that once again our brothers take to the streets and this will lead us to the overthrow of a regime…”

As denounced by the U.S. media outlet MintPressNews, many of the operators of the digital social network campaign in support of the demonstration are residents of Florida and other U.S. states. “The participation of foreign citizens in Cuba’s internal affairs is at a level that is hardly conceivable in the United States,” the publication says.

The direct involvement of the U.S. government in the counterrevolutionary farce is also explicit and provocative. No care has been taken to conceal it and no one can do so honestly. High government officials are directly involved in its promotion and, with the support of the special services, in its organization. An important instrument, though not the only one, is the U.S. embassy in Cuba, whose public statements often include blatant meddling in the nation’s internal affairs.

That office, fruit of the bilateral agreements signed in 2015 to formalize diplomatic relations between the two countries, has not fulfilled any diplomatic office for years. It does not even serve for the provision of immigration and consular services that citizens of both countries demand and depend on.

Its officials, including the Chargé d’Affaires, are forced to play the unworthy role of babysitters of the counterrevolutionary exponents and provocateurs in our country. They have the thankless task of falling in behind them, providing them with logistical and material support, as well as advice and guidance. Everything is known and documented. The embassy’s own activity in the digital networks provides evidence of what is happening and what the counterrevolution is doing.

Such behavior is in total contravention of International Law and in particular of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

With such sponsors and declared purposes, it is very difficult to presume civility and pacifism in the action called for November. Much less any legitimate and sovereign intentions.

What is at stake here, and there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind, is Cuba’s right to defend itself against foreign aggression, regardless of the disguise it takes.

The organizers try to cloak themselves in the Constitution to legitimize the provocation. They use constitutional precepts to defend anti-constitutional strategies. They adduce the right to demonstrate expressed in the Magna Carta, but they forget that this same Constitution, in its Article 45, indicates that the rights of the people are limited, among others, by the respect to this supreme norm: “The exercise of the rights of the people is only limited by the rights of others, the collective security, the general welfare, the respect to the public order, the Constitution and the laws”.

This Magna Carta, approved in a referendum just three years ago by 86.85 % of the voters, clearly defines in its Article 4 that: “The socialist system endorsed by this Constitution is irrevocable”. And in Article 229 it also establishes that “In no case shall the pronouncements on the irrevocability of the socialist system established in Article 4, and the prohibition to negotiate under the circumstances foreseen in paragraph a) of Article 16, be reformable”.

It is clear that neither now nor in the future can the right to demonstrate be used to subvert the political system, to overthrow the Cuban socialist project, or to establish alliances with groups and organizations that receive foreign financing with the objective of promoting the interests of the government of the United States and other foreign powers.

There does not exist in our country the right to act in favor of the interests of a foreign power and to put the stability of our citizens at risk. It is unconstitutional, illegitimate, immoral, to adhere to an annexationist project. Our laws say so and our history says so.

This is what our National Hero José Martí warned: “On our land, there is another plan more sinister than what we know until now, and it is the iniquitous one of forcing the Island, of precipitating it to war to have a pretext to intervene in it, and with the credit of mediator and guarantor, to keep it. (…) To die, in order to give a basis on which to rise to these people who push us to death for their benefit? Our lives are worth more, and it is necessary that the Island knows this in time. And there are Cubans, Cubans, who serve, with disguised boasts of patriotism, these interests”.

Enough of lies and gross manipulation of the facts. Nobody is going to be crushed by tanks in the streets as the spokesmen of the next provocation have spread. The Moncada exercise [November 20, National Defense Day] is part of the training we constantly do in preparation for defense. In the face of provocations such as this one, we are assisted by the most legitimate act in defense of the people and their conquests.

Dignity, resistance and unity are our most powerful forces in the face of the dishonorable and dishonorable annexationist action that serves the historical enemy of the Cuban nation in its plan to fracture and divide us in order to defeat us.

They have not been able to and will not be able to. Reason is our shield.

(No English subtitles on the video.)

Cuba bets on gradual economy opening

10 months ago Granma, Translations, ,

Cuba bets on the gradual opening of its economy

The Council of Ministers analyzed, during its most recent meeting, the performance of the economy at the end of August and other important issues to maintain the country’s vitality.

October 3, 2021 15:10:42 PM

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

All the power that is exercised in Cuba is done through the people, with the participation of the people to solve the problems of society, Diaz-Canel stressed in the most recent Council of Ministers. Photo: Estudios Revolución

The tightening of the US government blockade, the international economic crisis aggravated by the COVID-19, and the epidemiological situation itself, determine that the Cuban reality at the beginning of the fourth quarter of the year continues to be complex.

However, Cuba is committed to the gradual opening of its economy, which should have a favorable impact on productive activities. This was stated by the Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernández, when presenting a report on the performance of the economy at the end of August, at the most recent meeting of the Council of Ministers, chaired by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and led by the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz.

As a favorable element amidst the complexities, Gil Fernández defined the growth of employment, which distinguishes Cuba. “In many countries, the tendency has been to unemployment, to the cheapening of the labor force,” said the also deputy prime minister. Together with the fight against the epidemic, he stressed, we generate jobs and we are going to generate more with the improvement of the economic actors; the opening of gastronomy, services, tourism and the non-state sector.

So far, he said, 203,733 people have sought employment at the municipal Labor and Social Security departments, of which 138,656 were employed and 5,440 were linked to qualification courses to access a job.

Of the total who have been employed, he highlighted, 36% are young people under 35 years of age. The same percentage corresponds to women.

Referring to the main food balances in the national production, he pointed out that at the end of August, rice, corn, beans, milk and egg production, as well as beef and pork were out of compliance.

As for the vegetables, even though the demand is much higher than the supply, he pointed out that in August there was a greater quantity of stockpiled products than in previous months. This trend continued in September.

He referred to the behavior of energy carriers in the country. In August, he pointed out, the actual generation of electric energy was well below the foreseen plan, which meant a non-negligible cost in the economy and productive activities, with the objective of reducing the effects on the population.

Gil Fernández stressed the need for greater initiative and creative work, as well as “to take more advantage of the measures that the Government has been approving in the last few months to grant greater autonomy to the socialist state-owned company”.

These are measures -he valued- that must be taken advantage of in order to be able to move forward with greater efficiency in the state-owned enterprise. “A productive effort is required in all sectors to achieve, in the remainder of the year, the maximum possible economic growth”.

Complying with the design to control the pandemic, and with the economic measures adopted, Gil Fernandez assessed that “we can be in better conditions to, with an additional effort, in the fourth quarter try to aspire to the highest possible economic growth this year and start better 2022”.

Regarding the challenge that the reopening of tourism on November 15 means for Cuba, the Prime Minister considered that “it is an event that is already gaining strength at the international level”.

This is an issue -he reflected- that will have an impact on the economy; we are convinced that it will boost the economy, but for that “we all have to contribute. It is not only a tourism issue, but no sector is also unaffected by this event in the country”.


USEFUL AND DIVERSE AGENDA

Among other matters, the highest government body approved the new Portfolio of Opportunities for foreign investment in the country, consisting of 678 projects, 175 more than in the previous one.

In presenting the subject, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, explained that, in order to prepare it, it was based on the criterion of the greater importance of foreign investment in the current economic situation.

At this moment, he assured, we have 429 projects with approved directives, ready to be negotiated, and 56 in the Mariel Special Development Zone. The projects respond to strategic axes of the National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030, as is the case of productive transformation and international insertion; natural resources and the environment; infrastructure; as well as human potential and science, technology and innovation.

According to him, from the territorial point of view, the Portfolio is distributed among all the provinces and, for the first time, the food production sector is the most represented.

The Prime Minister drew attention to the need to promote foreign investment in a more dynamic way and always preserving our sovereignty. “It is necessary to give it the priority that this matter carries at the higher levels of management, each one with the role that corresponds to him.”

At the meeting, the Minister of Transportation, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, presented a report on the results of the Port-Transport-Internal Economy Operation, in the first semester of the year.

According to the information provided, even though all the missions were secured during the period, “there are still insufficiencies, both of a subjective and objective nature, which will be the focus of attention in the last months of the year”. Many of them, he explained, will be solved as funding and resources become available.

The Prime Minister emphasized that, in the midst of the complex situation, “it is more necessary than ever to get this operation right. It has to work properly; it cannot be an obstacle for the distribution of the goods that we are able to bring in, to get stuck inside the national territory, he said.

At the meeting, which was attended by Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People’s Power; Salvador Valdés Mesa, vice president of the Republic; and Roberto Morales Ojeda, secretary of Organization and Cadres Policy of the Central Committee of the Party, all members of the Political Bureau, the provincial scheme of territorial organization of Villa Clara was approved.

Likewise, the status of accounts receivable and payable in arrears, in litigation and court sentences at the end of June was analyzed; the fulfillment of the integral plans to confront urban illegalities by the governments, agencies of the Central State Administration and higher organizations of Business Management; and the progress of the Government Scholarship Program in other countries.

The Council of Ministers was also informed about the approval of the first micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), as well as non-agricultural cooperatives, after the regulations supporting them came into force on September 20.


THE KEY LIES IN POPULAR PARTICIPATION

We are obliged to design, among all of us, a system of popular control, aimed at confronting all the deviations that may exist in the fulfillment of the socialist legality, in the confrontation of corruption.

In this idea, considered the President of the Republic, lies the key on how we have to face the facts of corruption. His reflections were motivated by the presentation made by the Comptroller General of the Republic, Gladys Bejerano Portela, who presented to the Council of Ministers information on the fulfillment of the directives and the plan of control actions of the National Auditing System in the first semester of the year.

It is still insufficient, it was pointed out during the meeting, was the understanding, and the attention to the Policy approved for the improvement of the auditing activity and the urgency before the changes and challenges ahead. It is necessary to ensure the exercise of control and prevention as a method of management, exercised systematically in the development of all processes and not occasionally, or after they are concluded, as is generally the case. Control is the responsibility of those who exercise management; it must always be present.

The Head of State highlighted the political and governmental will that has historically existed in the Revolution to solve the problem of economic control and, in general, of everything that has an impact on efficiency and good performance, on the transparency of all our economic and social processes, as well as in the fight against corruption. On this, he said, it is necessary to look at the thinking of the Commander in Chief [Fidel] and the Army General [Raul]

Since the creation of the Comptroller’s Office, he recalled, work has been unleashed to create an adequate control environment and to advance in it. However, “the results are still insufficient and fill us with dissatisfaction,” he said.

After a broad reflection on our system of government and the leading role of popular participation in all scenarios, the President said that, on the basis of elements related to the defense of popular power, we can reach an analysis of how to make further progress in the fight against corruption.

All the power exercised in Cuba is done through the people, with the participation of the people to solve the problems of society, and this is one of them, he said. Hence his emphasis on there being a direct relationship in how the people participate in this battle. “I believe that by facing this with the people we are going to advance more.”

Díaz-Canel on racism at the UN

10 months ago Granma, ,

Díaz-Canel at the UN: The peoples of the world will always be able to count on Cuba’s contribution (+Video)

Speech by Miguel Díaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, at the High-Level Meeting during the General Debate of the 76th Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly

Author: Redacción Digital | internet@granma.cu
September 22, 2021 10:09:29 am

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.


Photo: Estudios Revolución
(Shorthand Versions – Presidency of the Republic)

Mr. Secretary General;

Mr. President:

The world should be ashamed to observe the poor scope of universal agreements that were once the hope of the excluded and the dispossessed.

Twenty years after the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action, the objectives set out in those documents for the fight against all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance have not been achieved.

Structural racism persists. Hate speech, intolerance, xenophobia and discrimination proliferate at worrying levels, including on social media and other communication platforms.

Developed capitalist countries try with demagogic speeches to divert attention from their historical responsibility in the enthronement and persistence of these scourges and their debt to the peoples who are victims of the slavery to which they were subjected. There is a lack of political will on the part of these same countries to make the promises of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action a reality.

The multidimensional crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the structural inequalities and exclusion inherent to the prevailing unjust economic order, which subjects the poor, those of African descent or migrants to all kinds of discrimination.

Mr. President:

In Cuba, beyond skin color, African, European and Native American genes are all mixed . We are one people, Afro-Latin, Caribbean, mestizo, in which several roots were fused to forge a unique, vigorous trunk, with its own identity, open to the world from a sense of belonging in which cultural values are assumed from an ethic of solidarity.

With a colonial slave-owning past, the black and mulatto Cuban population suffered for centuries the consequences of a system in which racism and racial discrimination were part of everyday life. Only with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 did a process of radical transformations take place that demolished the structural bases of racism and eliminated institutionalized racial discrimination forever.

The advocacy of hatred, the promotion of intolerance and supremacist ideas on the basis of national, religious or ethnic origin and xenophobia are alien to the political, social and economic life of the country.

The new Constitution of the Republic of Cuba ratified and strengthened the recognition and protection of the right to equality, as well as the prohibition of discrimination.

The Magna Carta provides that all persons are equal before the law, receive the same protection and treatment from the authorities and enjoy the same rights, freedoms and opportunities; but laws and decrees are not enough to erase centuries of discriminatory practices in societies.

To make further progress in the emancipating work of the Revolution, the National Plan against Racism and Racial Discrimination was approved in November 2019, as a government program that favors the most effective confrontation of racial prejudice and social problems that still exist in our society.

Cuba’s commitment to the eradication of racism transcends its borders. Thousands of Cubans supported national liberation movements in Africa and against the opprobrious apartheid regime. Thousands of others have contributed their solidarity aid, particularly in the area of health.

We will not relent in our pursuit of social justice. The peoples of the world will always be able to count on Cuba’s contribution so that the commitments we assumed 20 years ago in Durban become a reality.

Thank you very much.

[1] The Cuban Genetic Map, 2015 Cuban Academy of Sciences Award, indicated that on average, without distinction by skin color, genetic crossbreeding marked the presence of European ancestral genes in a proportion of 73.8%, 16.8% of African origin and 9.4% of genes of Native American origin.

 

Magali Llort Ruiz has passed away

10 months ago Granma, Translations,

Magali Llort Ruiz passed away(+Video)

Magali Llort distinguished herself for her firmness in defense of the principles of the Revolution.

Author: name | internet@granma.cu
September 23, 2021 16:09:42 PM

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

September 23, 2021 16:09:42 PM

Magali Llort. Photo: Taken from the Internet

n the morning hours of September 23rd, Magali Llort Ruiz, mother of the Hero of the Republic of Cuba Fernando Gonzalez Llort, passed away.

Magali began her working life at the National Bank, where she started as a secretary. She was a union leader and reached management positions in the bank. In 1994 she retired and began working at the Union of Construction Companies of the Caribbean (Uneca) until 2000, when she actively joined the mothers and wives of the Five Heroes in the campaign for the release of the anti-terrorist fighters.

She was elected deputy in the VII Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power. The Commander in Chief, in a solemn act in the Karl Marx Theater on March 8, 2002, awarded her the Mariana Grajales Order, by agreement of the Council of State. She was also awarded the August 23rd Medal, an honorary distinction of the Federation of Cuban Women. Magali Llort distinguished herself for her firmness in defense of the principles of the Revolution. At the time of her death, she was a member of the Cuban Communist Party. At the request of her family, her body will be cremated.

 

Unseemly proposals: medicines “a la izquierda”

10 months ago Granma, Translations, ,

Unseemly proposals: medicines “a la izquierda”

Unfortunately, while some seek any remedy to survive the setbacks in the midst of a health crisis, there are those who take advantage of this misfortune to enrich themselves.

Author: Ventura de Jesús | internet@granma.cu
Date September 4, 2021@ 00:09:22 AM

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

Photo: Freddy Pérez Cabrera
One listens impassively, as if deaf, when someone mentions that a certain medicine, such as a Rocephin vial or an Azithromycin tablet, is quoted in the informal market at prices exceeding one thousand pesos.

This is a simple reaction, because this type of information is not always completely real. However, we are facing a sad truth.

According to the listings on digital platforms, there are other drugs that exceed 500 pesos, such as Cephalexin, Duralgina, Vitamin C, Ibuprofen, Amoxicillin, Paracetamol, Metronidazole, Tetracycline, Clotrimazole in ovule and Nasalferon, just to mention a few.

One knows that the real basis is the shortage caused by the obstinate economic blockade of a government that cannot stand us as a sovereign country, and hunts us down in order to hinder any attempt to buy medicines and the supplies [needed] to manufacture them -and then they say that it is not to death, that the war they are waging against us is not against the people-. This, together with the world crisis that has unleashed this pandemic.

However, no one can deny that, behind closed doors, the shortage situation is aggravated by the lack of administrative control over the flow of drugs, and by carelessness, irresponsibility and indolence.

In any case, it takes a hard face, and a human face like a rock, to approach a family that is fighting tooth and nail for the life of a loved one, and make the unseemly proposal of selling salvation at a sky-high price.

It happens that, overwhelmed by the illness of the family member, shaken by the desperation caused by the real risk of death, many people get away from what is decent and unceremoniously pay the shameless opportunists for the smuggled medicine or the one brought in duty-free from abroad and which was not authorized for legal sale. On the other hand, necessity means that no one takes the trouble to speculate on the origin of the drug, nor does anyone notice the clear malice of the gesture. It is like a reciprocal effect, the shameless one takes advantage and the needy one solves part of his problem.

On the subject, in recent days it became known that a woman from Matanzas is serving a six-year prison sentence for illicit drug trafficking, an unscrupulous practice which, we insist, has been accentuated in times of pandemic.

The aforementioned author of the crime managed to acquire in several units of the province the analgesic known as Tramadol, for its subsequent sale at an overprice, using the informal market in Havana.

The severity of the sentence also has to do with the fact that the said drug is among those that produce effects similar to drugs, narcotic and psychotropic substances.

After the investigation and the exhaustive review of the facts, the First Chamber of the People’s Provincial Court of Matanzas issued the sentence, which also included sanctions for other persons involved.

This issue, and its different aspects, has been addressed without failing to point out the undeniable link of this practice with the lack of control and supervision, especially within the pharmacies and the whole network of entities involved, in one way or another, with the distribution and sale of medicines.

Successive evaluations of the pharmacy system in Matanzas in less than a year have brought to light the disorder in those establishments, according to the local newspaper Girón. On the other hand, in only two units economic damages for a value of more than 107,000 pesos were detected, a sign of fissures in the organization of the processes.

Even so, no explanation can justify the transfer of high-demand medicines which, as it is known, are not enough to satisfy the demand of the population.

Unfortunately, while some seek any remedy in order to survive the setbacks in the midst of a health crisis, there are those who take advantage of this misfortune to get rich.

There must be an end to contemplation with them, commented in recent days the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, referring to this unacceptable procedure at the expense of human health.

Díaz-Canel at Mexican Independence Day

10 months ago Granma, Translations, , ,

Díaz-Canel: “Among all the brothers that Our America has given us, Mexico counts, for many reasons, as one of the most dear to Cuba” (+Video)

Address by President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez at the civic-military parade on the occasion of the celebrations for the anniversary of the Grito de Dolores. Mexico, September 16, 2021

Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu
September 16, 2021 1:09:34 PM

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

Díaz-Canel recalled that “Mexico was the first country to recognize our armed struggle and to open its ports to ships flying the Lone Star flag”. Photo: Estudios Revolución

(Shorthand Versions – Office of the President of the Republic)

Dear Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of the United Mexican States;

Distinguished guests;

Dear Mexico:

Thank you for the opportunity you give us to bring Cuba’s grateful embrace to your beautiful patriotic celebrations for that Grito de Dolores that aroused so much libertarian eagerness in our region more than 200 years ago.

Among all the brothers that Our America has given us, Mexico counts, for many reasons, as one of the most dear to Cuba.

That affection that unites our lands begins with the dazzle caused by its deep and diverse traces in the literature and history of America:

“How beautiful is the land inhabited by the brave Aztecs!” said the Cuban José María Heredia in the Teocalli of Cholula, opening a fascinating door to that Mundo Nuestro, much earlier than that of the terrible conquest that began centuries later, with unrestrained slaughter and destruction, the Spanish troops coming from Santiago de Cuba, under the command of Hernán Cortés.

But no one would tell us more about Mexico than José Martí. I quote excerpts from his memorable speech delivered at the evening in honor of this country at the Hispanic American Literary Society in 1891: “(…) today we gather to pay honor to the nation girded with palm trees and orange blossoms that raises, like a flourish of glory, to the blue sky, the free summits where the whistle of the railroad awakens, crowned with roses as yesterday, with the health of work on the cheek, the indomitable soul that sparkled in the embers in the ashes of Cuauhtémoc, never extinguished. We salute a people that melts, in the crucible of its own metal, the civilizations that were cast upon it to destroy it!”.

Later, referring to the significant date we commemorate today, Martí said: “Three hundred years later, a priest (…) summoned his village to war against the parents who denied the life of soul to their own children; it was the hour of the Sun, when the adobe huts of the poor Indians were shining through the mulberry trees; and never, although veiled a hundred times by blood, has the sun of Hidalgo stopped shining since then! They hung the heads of the heroes in iron cages; the heroes bit the dust, with a bullet in the heart; but on September 16 of every year, at dawn, the President of the Republic of Mexico cheers, before the people, the free homeland, waving the flag of Dolores”.

Due to its characteristics, the Mexican independence process, which began with the Grito de Dolores, led by Father Miguel Hidalgo on a day like today in 1810 and was consummated 11 years later with the entrance of the Trigarante Army in Mexico City. It had a notorious component of social and indigenous demands that differentiated it from other processes that typified the independence era. Its impact was, without a doubt, extraordinary in the libertarian and anti-colonialist struggle in our region and particularly in Cuba.

It gathered ancestral aspirations of entire peoples that inhabited the territory, not only in Mexico, but also in Central and South America and the Antilles. It vindicated all poor Creole sectors -white, black and mulatto- submerged in misery, hunger and exploitation, and opposed the slavery of the blacks.

The broad popular presence had a decisive influence in its radicalization and in the realization of important social and political demands, which constituted an immense inspiration and encouragement for our independence movement.

There are many notable Cubans who left their blood and their names in the history of Mexico. The Cuban solidarity in Mexico’s confrontation with the Texan invasions in 1835-1836 and the North American invasion of 1846-48 stands out, especially the generals Pedro Ampudia, Juan Valentín Amador, Jerónimo Cardona, Manuel Fernández Castrillón, Antonio Gaona, Pedro Lemus and Anastasio Parrodi.

In March 1854, Cubans Florencio Villareal and José María Pérez Hernández launched the historic Plan de Ayutla, which was decisive in the rupture of the Mexican army and society with the dictatorial government of General Santa Anna.

As confirmed by the prestigious researcher René González Barrios, several of those men held key positions in Mexican political-military life and were governors or military commanders in important places in the country.

Two of them, Major Generals Anastasio Parrodi and Pedro Ampudia Grimarest were Ministers of War and Navy in the government of Benito Juarez during the Reform War.

In the Congress, the Government, in exile or in the war at Juarez’s side there were always Cubans. Prominent compatriots such as General Domingo Goicuría y Cabrera, and poets Juan Clemente Zenea and Pedro Santacilia, who was his son-in-law, secretary and agent of the Republic of Cuba in Arms before the Mexican Government, praised his magnificent work.

In the war against the French, the brothers Manuel and Rafael de Quesada y Loynaz, general and colonel respectively, served the Mexican army; colonels Luis Eduardo del Cristo, Rafael Bobadilla and Francisco León Tamayo Viedman; doctor commander Rafael Argilagos Gimferrer and captain Félix Aguirre. All of them would return to Cuba at the beginning of the Ten Years’ War.

It was Mexico, then, the first country to recognize our armed struggle and to open its ports to ships flying the Lone Star flag. The Congress approved it, Juarez pronounced it and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, President of the Republic in Arms, thanked him in a memorable letter to his Mexican counterpart: “…[it is] highly satisfactory that Mexico has been the first Nation in America to have thus manifested its generous sympathies to the cause of independence and freedom of Cuba”.

One of the main tasks that Pedro Santacilia would then fulfill, with Juarez’s consent, was to send to Cuba a select group of Mexican soldiers to contribute to the formation and training of the nascent Liberation Army. Mexicans shone in the fields of Cuba and their prowess inspired the troops and all those who heard about them.

Once again, the Father of the Cuban Homeland left a record of that dedication in a letter to the “Benemérito de las Américas”. Céspedes wrote: “Some Mexican gentlemen have come here and have shed their generous blood on our soil and for our cause, and the whole country has shown its gratitude for their heroic action”.

Two of those brave Mexican soldiers, veterans of the Reform War and the battle against the French Empire, reached the rank of Brigadier General of the Cuban Liberation Army and were part of its main chiefs: José Inclán Risco and Gabriel González Galbán.

Dear friends:

Because of that endearing memory that we share, we are moved and inspired by these acts that revere history and we return again and again to each line written for Mexico by José Martí, who forever links our two nations in all his work, but especially in his letters to his great Mexican friend Manuel Mercado.

It is also to that soul friend to whom he leaves in an unfinished letter, his resounding political testament: the will consecrated to the objective of “preventing in time, with the independence of Cuba, the United States from spreading through the Antilles and falling, with that force more, on our lands of America”.

Years before, on his way to Veracruz, Martí wrote: “O beloved Mexico, O adored Mexico, I see the dangers that surround you, I hear the clamor of a son of yours who was not born of you! From the North, an avid neighbor is curdling (…) You will be ordered; you will understand; you will be guided; I will have died, O Mexico for defending and loving you!”.

Here died for the Revolution, the young communist Julio Antonio Mella, assassinated in a street of this same city where Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro Ruz would meet, years later, through his brother Raul.

It was here that the young people of the Centennial Generation trained and organized their expedition. Here they forged friendships and affections that still endure and were immortalized in a song that is like a hymn of those epic times: La Lupe, by Juan Almeida Bosque.

From that Mexican period, among many others, the names of María Antonia González, Antonio del Conde, El Cuate, key in the acquisition of the Granma yacht; Arsacio Venegas and Kid Medrano, professional wrestlers who gave physical training to the troops; Irma and Joaquina Vanegas, who offered their house as a camp, will remain forever in Cuban history.

The passage of Fidel and his companions through Mexico left a deep impression on the future Granma expeditionaries and an accumulation of legends everywhere that are still spoken of with admiration and respect.

We will never forget that, thanks to the support of many Mexican friends, the Granma yacht set sail from Tuxpan, Veracruz, on November 25, 1956. From that historic vessel, seven days later, on December 2, the newborn Rebel Army landed to liberate Cuba.

Nor do we forget that, just a few months after the historic triumph of the Revolution in 1959, General Lázaro Cárdenas visited us. His willingness to stand by our people after the mercenary invasion of Bay of Pigs in 1961 marked the character of our relations.

Faithful to its best traditions, Mexico was the only Latin American country that did not break off relations with revolutionary Cuba when we were expelled from the OAS by an imperial mandate.

Throughout the years, we have never broken what history has indissolubly united. Our two countries have honored their sovereign policies, regardless of the closeness or distance between governments. A very Mexican principle prevails: respect for the rights of others is peace.

There is unquestionable merit in those who have dedicated life and energy, heart and soul, to nurture that brotherhood with the tenderness of peoples. I pay tribute here to the sustained, invariable, passionate and firm solidarity that we always find in this land, which all Cubans must love as our own.

It was said by the Cuban Apostle, who also drew with his colorful prose a faithful portrait of this generous people when he declared: “As from the root of the land comes to the Mexican that character of his, shrewd and stately, attached to the country he adores, where through the double work of magnificent Nature and the brilliant touch of the legend and the epic, the order of the real and the romantic feeling come together in their rare measure”.

From those words until today, the common heritage built by an infinite list of prestigious intellectuals and artists of both nations has not ceased to grow. We are united by literature, cinema, visual arts, bolero and mambo.

It could be said that the significant cultural exchange between Mexico and Cuba reaches all manifestations of culture in its broadest meaning, inasmuch as it is no less influential the relationship in sports, especially, baseball and boxing, where the connection is so natural and deep that at times the exact origin of works and facts is lost and we must conclude that it comes from both.

Friends:

For these and other reasons, which do not fit in a necessarily brief speech, it is a great honor to participate in the military parade commemorating the beginning of the struggle for Mexico’s independence and to express our feelings before your Government and your people.

I do so conscious that it is a recognition of the historical ties and brotherhood existing between Mexico and Cuba, a genuine token of appreciation, affection and respect for which I am deeply grateful on behalf of my people.

The decision to invite us has an immeasurably greater value at a time when we are suffering the onslaught of a multi-dimensional war, with a criminal blockade, opportunistically intensified with more than 240 measures in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, which has such dramatic costs for everyone, but particularly for the less developed countries.

We are facing, in parallel, an aggressive campaign of hate, disinformation, manipulation and lies, mounted on the most diverse and influential digital platforms, which ignores all ethical limits.

Under the fire of that total war, Mexico’s solidarity with Cuba has awakened in our people a greater admiration and the deepest gratitude.

Allow me to tell you, dear President, that Cuba will always remember your expressions of support, your permanent demand for the lifting of the blockade and for the annual United Nations vote to be converted into concrete deeds, something that your country has fulfilled in an exemplary manner towards our people.

We are deeply grateful for the aid received in the form of medical supplies and food to alleviate the combined effects of the economic harassment and the pandemic.

Mexican sisters and brothers:

In the face of the complex epidemiological situation facing the world, solidarity and cooperation among our peoples takes on greater transcendence.

For this reason, our health professionals and technicians did not hesitate to accompany the Mexican people whenever necessary. And we will do it again whenever they need it.

We recognize the excellent work carried out by Mexico at the head of the pro tempore presidency of the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States, a mechanism of genuine Latin American and Caribbean vocation aimed at defending the unity in the diversity of Our America against the neoliberal recolonization project that is trying to impose on us.

As Fidel expressed in an act of Cuban-Mexican friendship held on August 2, 1980: “We will not tolerate anything against Mexico! We will feel it as our own. We will know how to be faithful to the friendship forged by centuries of history and beautiful common principles!

Long live Mexico!

Long live the friendship between Cuba and Mexico! (Applause.)

Mexico was the only Latin American country that did not break relations with revolutionary Cuba when we were expelled from the OAS by an imperial mandate, said Díaz-Canel. Photo: Estudios Revolución

Parade for the 211th anniversary of the Grito de Independencia of Mexico. Photo: Estudios Revolución

Border Opening Begins as of November 15

11 months ago Granma, Translations,

Cuba’s borders will be gradually opened as of November 15

Considering the progress in the vaccination process in Cuba, its proven effectiveness and the prospect that more than 90% of the entire population will complete their vaccination schedules in November, conditions are being prepared to gradually open the country’s borders as of November 15, 2021.

Author: Granma internet@granma.cu
September 5, 2021 21:09:18 PM

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

New sanitary protocol measures at José Martí airport adopted to José Martí, Boyeros. Photo: Endrys Correa Vaillant

Taking into account the progress in the vaccination process in Cuba, its proven effectiveness and the perspective that more than 90% of the entire population will conclude the vaccination schedules in November; conditions are being prepared to open, gradually, the country’s borders as of November 15, 2021.

According to a note from the Ministry of Tourism sent to our editorial office, health and hygiene protocols will be made more flexible upon the arrival of travelers, which will be focused on the surveillance of symptomatic patients and the taking of temperature. In addition, diagnostic tests will be performed randomly, PCR will not be required upon arrival and travelers’ vaccination certificates will be recognized.

The domestic tourist market will also be opened gradually, in accordance with the epidemiological indicators of each territory.

 

Recovering from Hurricane Ida (+Video)

11 months ago Granma, Translations

“Now we have to put up with the hurricane, with effort and will” (+Video)

The President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, together with members of the Government team, carried out an extensive day of work this Sunday in the province of Pinar del Río and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud to assess the damages caused by Hurricane Ida in both territories, amid the complexities imposed by the COVID-19.

Author: Yaima Puig Meneses | internet@granma.cu
August 29, 2021 11:08:26 AM

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

Díaz-Canel’s tour of Pinar del Río and Isla de la Juventud
Photo: Estudios Revolución

The way in which the damages caused by Hurricane Ida are being restored shows that there is coherence, capacity and organization, said the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, at the end of an intense work tour yesterday afternoon, as part of which he arrived early in the morning in the province of Pinar del Río, and in the afternoon, in the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud.

Accompanied by the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, as well as by a representation of the country’s government team, the Head of State was able to verify at different points of both territories the progress in the clean-up work, the recovery of the affected planting areas, the restitution of the main services that were interrupted and the response that is beginning to be given to the quantified damages in the houses.

The work that has been carried out,” he said, “shows that there is a spirit in our people to overcome adverse situations caused by events of this type. This, he emphasized, gives us confidence and optimism to be able to move forward in the midst of so many difficulties that we have had to face in recent times; furthermore, it is an expression of unity and understanding of the problems we have and that we must continue to face.

Photo: Revolution Studios

BETWEEN THE ONE-WAY COMPLEXITIES AND THE PANDEMIC

“Now, none of the products that have been recovered should be lost”, was one of the main ideas reiterated by the President in Pinar del Río, when he exchanged views with producers whose crops were affected by the hurricane.

It is precisely in agriculture that the greatest effects of the meteorological phenomenon in the province have been observed. Preliminary data, offered by Governor Rubén Ramos Moreno, speak of 687 tons of yuca and 551 tons of plantain, as well as losses of boniato and pumpkin. Everything that could be recovered -he assured- was sold to the population.

While touring areas of the Hermanos Barcón productive pole, one of the main ones in Pinar del Río province, the Head of State insisted to producers and managers on the priority to work to achieve a short-cycle planting strategy, which will allow for the availability of more products, the immediate recovery of plantain plantations and an increase in harvest and replanting.

No time can be lost in planting,” he stressed, “because this is a good time to take advantage of the moisture left by the rains. One of the great challenges, he stressed, is to achieve greater diversification of crops, which will make it possible to meet the food demands of the population today.

During the meeting with the main authorities of the province, he also reported on the damage caused to houses by Hurricane Ida. Preliminary figures showed that 148 buildings were affected, two of which were counted as total collapses and 109 with partial losses in their roofs. It was reported that since the Recovery Phase was declared, the movement of resources to different places began in order to respond as soon as possible to the situation of the properties.

Regarding the reestablishment of the electric service, it was learned that the arduous work that has been carried out had allowed, in the morning hours of yesterday, the recovery of almost 70% of the damages. According to what was explained by the Minister of Energy and Mines, Liván Arronte Cruz, five workgroups from the provinces of Havana and Matanzas will arrive in the next few hours to reinforce the recovery work.

Regarding the rainfall, the authorities of the territory expressed that it was mostly beneficial, especially in the municipalities of San Juan y Martínez and Isabel Rubio.

In the midst of the new complexities left to Pinar del Río by Hurricane Ida, the Head of State insisted on not neglecting for a moment the actions to confront covid-19 in the territory, which during the last days has shown high levels of transmission of the disease.

Ariel Godoy del Llano, provincial director of Public Health, commented that in recent days there has been a decrease in the number of people with symptoms in health institutions. More than 4,000 people remained at home this Sunday, which is a great challenge. He also referred to the vaccination of the population over 19 years of age in the main municipality and in population groups at risk in the other municipalities, which is a guarantee to advance in the protection of people and reduce the rates of infection.

Díaz-Canel’s tour of Pinar del Río and Isla de la Juventud
Photo: Estudios Revolución

WORK HAS BEEN CARRIED OUT IN AN ORGANIZED AND RAPID MANNER

“Here we have worked in an organized and fast way”, said the President in an exchange with inhabitants of La Fe, one of the main towns of the special municipality, where the Government team arrived after midday this Sunday.

After touring several areas affected by Ida’s ravages, the President insisted that we cannot let ourselves be defeated by the weather conditions. That is why we also ask for your cooperation to restore in the shortest possible time, he stressed. “Now the hurricane we have to put it ourselves, with effort and will; that is what we are calling you to.”

As the coronavirus continues to be a challenge, even on the Isle of Youth, where the spread of the epidemic has been successfully contained, the First Secretary asked the Pineros to “continue taking care of yourselves, because, although you are the best territory in the country in confronting covid-19 and have maintained a rigorous control, you cannot neglect yourselves.”

In conversation with producers, the government team found that the main damages in this sector occurred in crops such as banana, pumpkin and pumpkin fruit. There was no loss of animals in the different farms, where only the roofs of the buildings were damaged. So far, said Mayor Adiel Morera Macias, 136 tons of recovered products had been sold to the population, including two tons of beans.

At midday on Sunday, some 9,700 customers remained without electricity service.

9,700 customers, especially in the areas of La Fe and La Demajagua, where 46 poles were down. According to estimates made in the municipality, by the end of the day between 90% and 95% of the service would be restored.

At the headquarters of Empresa Eléctrica, the President was informed of the reestablishment of more than 70% of the service in the special municipality. In the town of Gerona, 99% of the damage was restored and in La Fe, 79%. The Minister of Energy and Mines assured that the priority during the first hours was the service to the houses and the one that guarantees the water supply.

According to the Pinero Intendant, the greatest damage to housing is concentrated in light roofs, with partial damage to 141 properties. The work of the community factors in the popular councils will make it possible to count everything.

Photo: Estudios Revolución

MUCH REMAINS TO BE DONE

The President, shortly before concluding the day on the Isle of Youth, commented on the characteristics that distinguished the weather phenomenon. The first of them, he said, is that it was an event that passed through the country in a very short time, therefore, the passage to each of the phases was very hasty, which demanded an additional effort from the leadership bodies for the confrontation. On the other hand, particularly in Pinar del Río, actions were taken with disaster reduction plans already updated by the pandemic.

These singularities demand more precision, coherence and effort. And both Pinar del Río and Isla de la Juventud, including Artemisa, which was also affected, responded quickly. “The main value is that there is no loss of human lives to be regretted”.

In view of the fundamental damages that occurred, especially those related to the distribution of electric energy, which were almost total in both territories, the President highlighted the agility with which they have worked to solve them.

He acknowledged the efforts made to maintain the health services in the midst of the weather conditions. He especially emphasized the effort, in the midst of the hurricane, to support oxygen coverage, which demanded meticulous joint work with the National Management Center.

Regarding what was appreciated in the two territories, he considered very important the actions for the collection of solid waste in the roads and communities. We have seen an atmosphere of willingness among the population to participate, he said.

These days were also full of teachings and lessons learned. In this sense, he gave as an example the way in which the damage caused to houses have been taken care of. It contrasts,” he said, “with that in recent years where we have been able to provide a faster recovery response, with the fact that the solution for people who have been waiting 12 years or more for a response and are living in temporary facilities, something very stressful for the life of a family, has been relegated to the back burner. This is an issue that we have to prioritize in the housing plans, even if we are a little late in the new buildings. These are things that we have to take care of and to which we have to give a different vision, he said.

With satisfaction, he highlighted what has been done in both territories, which prevented the consequences from being greater. There is still a lot of work to be done and, therefore, we must also put our hearts into dealing with the effects of the hurricane.

Decree-Law 35 and All Cubans’ rights

11 months ago Granma, Translations, ,

Decree-Law 35: Cuba’s rights and those of  all Cubans (+ Video)

Our State has the necessary tools to preserve your security, as well as the inalienable and sovereign right to regulate telecommunications and information and communication technologies, which play a significant role in the political, economic and social development of our country.

Author: National Newsroom | internet@granma.cu 
August 20, 2021 12:08:06 AM

Translated by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

Cuban applications for mobiles

Photo: Dunia Álvarez Palacios

Information and communication technologies (ICT) constitute an already historical component of aggression with extreme doses of manipulation and hatred by the US Government against Cuba.

Radio was the first medium used against our nation. One of the most concrete examples was the airing, in 1960, of La Voz de América (VOA), the central organ in the media attack against the nascent Cuban Revolution. Less than a month later, Radio Swan, renamed Radio America by the CIA, swept through the ether after the defeat of the mercenary invasion of Playa Girón in April 1961 and the total discredit of the station. They followed in his sad footsteps in this dirty war Radio Martí (1985) and Televisión Martí (1990).

In the age of the internet, the White House has allocated millions of dollars in funds for subversion projects mounted on technology, and for which it created a Task Force destined to promote anti-Cuban leaders and strategies in cyberspace.

Our State has the necessary tools to preserve your security, as well as the inalienable and sovereign right to regulate telecommunications and information and communication technologies, which play a significant role in the political, economic and social development of our country. They constitute an effective means for the consolidation of the conquests of socialism and the well-being of the Cuban population.

This is precisely what the legal package whose approval was officially announced in April 2021 refers to. It was not born, as our enemies insist on making believe, in response to the riots of last month.

But it has been Decree-Law 35 On telecommunications, information and communication technologies and the use of the radioelectric spectrum, out of all the rules contained in the Ordinary Official Gazette No. 92 of August 17, 2021, which it has generated more reactions… and misrepresentations.

  • The establishment of rights and duties of the users of public telecommunications/ICT services, as expected, caused the alarm of the anti-Cuban machinery, which works precisely against what Decree-Law 35 faces in the defense of Cuba:
  • the use of telecommunications / ICT services to undermine security and internal order in the country;
  • the transmission of false reports or news;
  • the motivation for actions aimed at causing harm or damage to third parties and as a means of committing illegal acts;
  • the realization or incitement to transmit offensive information or harmful to human dignity;
  • the emission of sexual, discriminatory content, to generate harassment, and damage personal and family privacy or one’s image and voice; the identity, integrity and honor of the person;
  • and the call for actions against collective security, general welfare, public morality and respect for public order.


WHY WAS DECREE-LAW 35 NECESSARY?

The first of the general objectives of this Decree-Law is to contribute to making the use of telecommunications services an instrument for the defense of the Revolution, which is not to the liking of the historical enemies of our country.

But it also seeks to promote the use of ICTs for development, to strengthen sovereignty in the use of the radioelectric spectrum; and ensure citizen access to telecommunications services and constitutional rights; in particular the principle of equality, privacy and secrecy in communications.

In ten titles and 129 articles, Decree-Law 35 also addresses how to guarantee an efficient use of the limited resources of telecommunications / ICT; how to integrate research, development and innovation in the sector for the evolution of networks, equipment, devices, appliances and services; as well as how to preserve the development of human capital associated with the activity.

READ CALM, AND WELL

A look at this legal norm allows us to highlight some elements of great value for citizens. In Title I, which addresses the object, general objectives, scope and institutional framework, in Chapter 2, it is specified that the State Council or the National Defense Council, as the case may be, provides for the implementation of special national or regional, for the management of the radioelectric spectrum in case of exceptional situations, such as military maneuvers, situations of radio-electronic espionage of the enemy, and other circumstances related to national security and defense, as well as internal order.

Title II, which is the object of the greatest number of attacks, also includes the rights of telecommunications users, operators and providers, among which is to access all public services under conditions of equality and affordability and to receive them with quality and efficient, equitable and non-discriminatory treatment.

It is, in addition, to receive the guarantee in the services provided, have free and priority access to emergency services, access to truthful, sufficient and timely information on goods and services provided by operators and suppliers, as well as of its prices or rates, billing and its facilities, and obtain the due compensation for the interruption of the service that is contracted.

In accordance with the legislation, citizens must receive timely information on the effects on the service, they have the right to use terminal equipment other than those offered; and to make requests, complaints, claims … and that they are duly attended to and answered.

Title III, Chapter 1, highlights that private telecommunications services are only provided to third parties with the authorization of the Ministry of Communications; and that public services in this area have priority over private ones.

In the case of amateur radio services, it explains that they are governed by the regulatory provisions established for them, and the specific frequencies that are authorized are used, through a general permit.

In its content, Title V, on the Universal Telecommunications Service, it is clear that the State must preserve and progressively guarantee compliance with the obligations of the Universal Telecommunications/ICT Service with respect to the fixed and mobile telephone service; internet access; sound and television broadcasting; access to public telephones; to free emergency and distress calls; and the application of preferential rates for people with special needs.

Likewise, through Title VI, focused on human capital and science, technology, research, development and innovation activities in the telecommunications / ICT sector, the ministries and other organizations are encouraged to establish actions to encourage access to the resources that allow adequate education, training and professional improvement.

Related information

Meeting with our President at the FMC

11 months ago Granma, Translations,

 

Impressions of a meeting with our President at the FMC (+ Video)

Karima Oliva Bello | internet@granma.cu
August 15, 2021

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

The President spent much of the time he had to speak (because we spoke more) explaining what it means to lead a country that is blockaded and attacked by the media. At the same time, he reaffirmed what has always been the maxim of this Revolution, to move forward in spite of the blockade, not to stop in front of it.

As it happened to me when I had the opportunity to exchange views with Deputy Minister Johana Odriozola, I realized that managing the economy in the midst of a war like the one we are living through, without applying a neo-liberal adjustment package, requires tremendous effort and inventiveness, and is extremely complex.

Johana told us: “It is as if they wake up every day and say, how are these people still breathing? And wherever they find a vent, they plug it up”. The President confirmed this when he told us that we have just received important help with oxygen, which is so badly needed, “but I won’t say where it comes from, because if I do, they block it”.

Faced with this, I contrasted how easy it is to sit down to write with the aim of discrediting, sometimes even from other latitudes, without any real difficulty, prescriptions of what the President, or this minister or this organization or the other should do. It requires a tremendous dose of arrogance. It is good to give an opinion, but a little humility would be good for all of us as long as we do not cease in the exercise of criticism.

I noticed the commendable work done by so many people on a daily basis to move this country forward, in silence, women leading the industry, the police, science, agriculture, the National Program for the Advancement of Women. I realize the sterility of so many discussions in social networks that are exhausted in who is right about one issue or another, while so many work hard in all fields, including the social sciences, with much work and less words and vanity.

There is a very strong struggle in Cuba between the oppression and hopelessness produced by so many years of toil due to economic shortages and the desire to move forward with all the fairness that the Revolution has meant. This is a dramatic expression of the class struggle. It is the resistance to the violence of imperialism, concretized in advancing over the economic terrorism that is done to us. And, in short, as Ileana Macías says, “In my neighborhood, if there is food, nobody cares about anything else”.

Cuban women have emancipated ourselves tremendously. However, the tears there, of some of them, denounce that this equality has cost us to go head-on against a patriarchy that we have not yet managed to banish completely. We women have been the most important pillar of the Revolution because not only did we advance towards every trench in the vanguard, but also because we did so without ceasing to support the houses of all in the rearguard.

Those were the words cried by the one who coordinates an important working commission of the FMC in defense of women’s equity. The National Program for the Advancement of Women is perhaps one of the most advanced public policies proposed by any state in the world in this field.

In Cuba, any woman, regardless of age, profession, income level, skin color, feels entitled to speak to her President without any protocol whatsoever. To tell him what she thinks and feels without any filter. That is rare in a world like the one we live in, where most presidents come to power to represent the interests of untouchable elites.

There I did not see one more candidate in a clientelist play to capture votes. I saw a man seriously concerned about capturing the ideas and feelings of all, to fully assume his responsibility to the country, with a collective leadership style. For those who are so concerned about dialogue and democracy, the system is in very good health in that sense, although it also has important challenges ahead.

Popular wisdom sees: it knows how to differentiate between what is fair and what is not, because dignity and life are at stake. Ileana went from La Güinera to there, not to be right or to say the last word, she went to speak for her neighborhood and to ask for it. That is the wise thing to do and that is what she said. We are facing a leadership style of a vocation to listen and serve a collective project, a style inherited from Fidel’s school and unprecedented in today’s world.

This exercise of dialogue with various sectors of the population, of the highest leadership of a country, in fact, its President and also First Secretary of the PCC, speaks of a feature of Cuban socialism that has much to show the world in terms of democracy.

Let us bear witness to this, because the hegemonic media will not tell it. It is clear that I am not avoiding in this recognition the awareness of all the democracy that is still missing. We need to be in spaces like this so that the mirage of the fracture of consensus and the disintegration of the social fabric that we imagine in our rhetoric does not prevent us from seeing reality.