Russians with the Delta strain, old chicken to eat and repression like in Venezuela

Cuban Marujá On Tuesday, she raised her glass of the first “Cuba Libre” in Caracas, hoping that her sister Clarisa, in Havana, would accompany her at the same time. But it was only an illusion because his cell phone and communications had been blocked since Sunday when the wave of protest spread throughout the Caribbean island.

That Sunday, the emotion felt by many inhabitants of Caracas empathetic with the demonstrators in Cuba, run the rum in liquor stores even when there was a dry law due to the pandemic. The joy of the “awakening” of the Cuban protests after 62 years of revolution and isolation made the bottles empty in Caracas.

“Things are very ugly, the situation is very difficult”, says Maruja Bugle, his name is fictitious, he keeps it anonymous. Her family is at risk in Cuba, where the situation is critical due to shortages of food, fuel and blackouts.

Russians with covid

The climate began to clear up in Cuba with the arrival of Russian travelers a few weeks ago, when the regime tourism has reopened amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Russians began to arrive with PCR falsas. In Matanzas, the infections have spread. You had to wait around 6 and 7 hours to be treated in hospitals, ”says Maruja, according to the testimony her sister gave her.

The testimony matches the facts. Towards the end of June, Cuba detected in at least one of its provinces the Delta variant Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Angel Batista Díaz, director of health for the province of Ciego de Ávila – in the center of the country – confirmed the data.

At the end of June, Cuba registered nationally a brutal regrowth pandemic and in a weekend it has seen peaks of over 2,500 daily infections, which has not been seen since the disease was detected on the island over a year ago .

The situation worsened to the point that the “boys started to die,” says Maruja. The Russians reportedly brought the Delta variant with them.

The new outbreak has also found Cubans suffering shortage. They only allowed them to buy in the supplies “Chicken mince” or old chicken giblets that have only been softened in pressure cookers.

“The strain from India that the Russians brought to Havana started to spread and infect large populations of civilians and NGOs started asking for humanitarian aid,” continues Maruja, married to a Venezuelan woman, and convinced that she will never return to Cuba.

“The pandemic crisis exploded in just 5 hours, recording 5,000 infections in a single day and around 14 deaths. People got tired of so much inefficiency, ”he said.

In Cárdenas, in the province of Matanzas, near Varadero, it was necessary to bring beds for pandemic patients and supplies because the health centers they collapsed.

“In Havana, they were afraid of the rise of the infected. My cousin from Camaguey could not get vaccinated. Everyone is wary of the Cuban vaccine Abdala, ”he adds.

A spontaneous protest

The euphoria of the protests gave way to fear. Several Cuban sources consulted by Bugle they recognize that the Cuban government is not ready to back down. They know he will use all the tools in his power to quell protests. Officially, the regime has admitted that one person died in the protests. There are already stories that denounce missing people. And the detainees are said to be around 130.

“I’m glad the Cubans woke up protesting, but the dictatorship will crush them. I saw protesters grabbed and restrained on the ground and thrown into trucks like sacks of potatoes. It’s barbaric, ”says Maruja.

Demonstrations for economic and political reasons to demand freedom were “spontaneous” throughout the island, inspired by the “San Isidro Movement” with the incorporation of “Women in White”.

It all started in the city of San Antonio de Los Baños and Artemisa, near Havana and spread across the province like wildfire.

The “black berets” and the FAES

“I know that the Cuban black berets, copies of the Venezuelan FAES (Special Action Forces), continue to conduct house-to-house raids, as ordered by Miguel Díaz-Canel, similar to the operation used by the special forces police to persecute. opponents and criminals of the Koki gangs in Caracas, ”he said.

Internet communications are suspended in Cuba and “I don’t know for sure how many people the dictatorship has detained,” says Maruja. And he suspects the circulating number of 130 inmates. She is sure that there are many more.

Amid escalating protests, the Cuban government sent the elite group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces to the streets. “black berets”, in order to deactivate historical events.

The formidable armed squad patrolled the streets at dawn on Monday, hours after Miguel Díaz Canel’s government began cutting internet service and electricity in some cities to avoid the spread of repression and the actions of the agents.

In the repression exercised by the dreaded “black berets”, the application of methods used by other police commands such as the Venezuelan “FAES”.

Already in a note released on Tuesday, Cuban sources said Bugle the same: versions which suggest that Havana asked for help from Caracas and the return of the Cubans deployed in Venezuela.

Black berets and FAES (much more recent in their creation) operate according to the same pattern or procedural manual, they wear black with armored suits, they carry the same weapons and produce terror in their wake.

Facing the demonstrators, the “black berets” and the FAES hit, drag, suffocate with tear gas canisters, they shoot, imprison, torture and then make their victims disappear.

The two commands agree to infiltrate the protests with plainclothes agents to control demonstrations from inside and keep track of its participants, then persecute and arrest them.

The “black berets”, known for their black caps, they are the elite group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) of Cuba. It is a command created to suppress the demonstrators, although officially it is the Special National Brigade (BEN) of the Ministry of the Interior.

Your Venezuelan colleagues from FAES wear a black helmet, balaclava or black skull mask terrify. They also wear black. They are tactical units created in 2016 by the Bolivarian National Police of the Ministry of the Interior to suppress protesters and persecute criminals in populated neighborhoods.

In both cases, the shock forces act with impunity allowed to kill and they face demonstrators arming themselves with sticks, bats, stones and even cardboard shields and their cries for freedom.

Last year, the FAES reportedly committed 4,000 extrajudicial executions for which the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, demanded that the Nicolás Maduro regime eliminate this police force.

Maruja in Caracas is still unable to speak to her sister in Havana. “We used to be able to talk through CANTV (the phone company) but now we can’t.” Cubans barely have internet since 2018. And now it’s cut.

The Cuban regime blocked the Internet and voice connection on the submarine cable that Venezuela built for it in 2011 at a cost of $ 60 million.

Caracas, special

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