The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, was photographed two weeks ago at the door of the Havana headquarters of the Leonor Pérez Cabrera Canarian Association of Cuba, located at number 258 Monserrate street –now Belgium avenue–, in Old Havana. The politician smiled in front of the main building of an entity that has been intervened by the Cuban government since before the summer of 2022, when he put Vice Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas in charge of the institution.
The Canarian press, as well as the residents of the area, knew about the situation of the property, closed for months and in an unfortunate state. That is why he asked the regional government for a visit included in the president’s agenda to the building. “The house is in use, it is open for meetings,” replied the Executive, who was exhaustive: “Go, let’s go.”
Torres, who made between February 4 and 11 a trip to Cuba and Venezuelawhere important communities of immigrants from the Canary Islands reside (50,000 on the island), stated in Havana that “an action to improve and strengthen this equipment” was required, referring to the Casa Canaria, originally belonging to the Cuban Society of Engineers and where the Association was installed since its foundation, in 1992.
However, the massive act with Cuban canaries in the capital was held at the Bertolt Brecht theater in front of some 200 people.
The abandonment of the Casa Canaria, from which a few days before Torres’ arrival hung a sign announcing its closure due to administration and control problems, has ended up revealing a situation of which the Spanish authorities seem to know only a part. “I know that there is a problem with the Canary Islands Association and that for the moment it is under the supervision of the department of Vice Minister Rojas,” he confirms to 14ymedio a diplomatic source consulted this week.
The Casa Canaria Leonor Pérez Cabrera was a meeting point for the many Canarians or Cubans originating from the Spanish archipelago. Inside, presided over by a large hall, there were dances and concerts on weekends and his restaurant had a certain reputation on the Island.
In November 2018, Carmelo González, president of the association since its foundation and leader of the Cuban collective almost since his arrival in Havana, in 1959, died at the age of 85. Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, his dedication to the community has already Weaving ties to both shores – which kept him close to power – led him to make friends as well as enemies. However, few dispute his good intentions and a management of diplomacy that allowed him to keep the Cuban authorities as close as necessary but far enough away so that they could not touch a euro of the subsidies that the entity receives.
“Carmelo governed Leonor Pérez Cabrera fiercely and there was not a single canary, inside or outside of Cuba, that would answer him or cough him up,” he says. on your Facebook profile Ismael Romen Rodríguez, public employee in the regional government of the Canary Islands and member of the Association.
Sánchez adds that an agreement was even reached with Cubana de Aviación, when there were flights from the Canary Islands, to have a warehouse in which medicines traveled every week
“When Carmelo was alive, all these people from Culture who wanted to stick their noses in were kept at bay,” he explains to 14ymedio Pedro Sánchez González, a close collaborator in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria of the Cuban association during the period prior to the Castro intervention. “He spent 30 years and did unimaginable things, he even rescued the mausoleum of the Canaries from the Colón cemetery. I worked with him, I went to Cuba two or three times a year and we loaded a ship with aid material for the Island.”
Sánchez adds that an agreement was even reached with Cubana de Aviación, when there were flights from the Canary Islands, to have a warehouse in which medicines traveled every week. He continues with this work now, through an NGO, but has disassociated himself from the association.
González was succeeded in office by his right-hand man at the time, Lázaro Rivero, also vice president of the National Bank and the Cuban Bank for Agricultural Development and Industry. Pedro Sánchez puts his hand in the fire for both Carmelo González and him. “He was a very honest man, trusted by Carmelo. He was very old, they put a lot of pressure on him from the Ministry of Culture until he couldn’t take it much longer,” he says.
However, both Sánchez and the Canarian official agree on poor money management, either due to simple lack of control or negligence. The rumors circulating in Havana, favored by the poster placed on the door of the House, even claimed that a son of González or Rivero had left with the money from the association to Spain and later to the United States.
This newspaper contacted one of Carmelo González’s sons, Fernando, who assures that if the accusation of theft of funds is against him “it does not even deserve a response”, because “it does not make any sense”
This newspaper contacted one of Carmelo González’s sons, Fernando, who assures that if the accusation of theft of funds is against him “it doesn’t even deserve a response”, because “it doesn’t make any sense”. In addition, he clarifies that “the property is owned by the State and that it was used in usufruct” and considers it “a magnificent building” that was restored at the time by the association with the help of the Canarian Government.
“That black history was taken to the streets to justify the assault on the Casa Canaria”, alleges Sánchez. He points out, however, that the board made “mistakes” when justifying the expenses to the Canary Islands government.
“I know about the races to justify the unjustifiable in terms of subsidies. I know, because they told me, I did not see it, about invoices written on bar napkins that Don Carmelo brought on his constant trips to the Canary Islands. I know which official guarded a stamp of the entity in case there was any urgency in the justification”, exposes, for his part, Romen Rodríguez.
Those irregularities would have served, the associates suspect, to justify the long-awaited intervention, approximately in May 2022. Rivero, who had already moved away from the presidency, died in November 2022, when the Cuban Vice Minister Fernando Rojas, whose grandmother is Originally from Arucas (Las Palmas), she was in charge temporarily. An election process began in December of a new board of directors that can take months – since meetings must be held in the dozens of houses that exist throughout the Island – and some partners warn that the Ministry of Culture is trying to place their favorite candidates at the helm.
The subsidies granted by the Canary Islands government to Leonor Pérez Cabrera seem to be the reason for the dispute, despite not being as bulky as the associates suppose. The general budgets of the Autonomous Community provide for a specific item from the Vice-Ministry of Foreign Action for the entities in Madrid and Cuba, as they are the most important. The rest of the Canarian houses in Spain and the world have access to other subsidies.
“The headquarters in Havana were closed because Culture sent a person practically to the assault, they took the three or four people that were left out of there and they began to shuffle all the papers that were there”
In recent years, the entity has been receiving 15,000 euros annually (from 2016 to 2020) and 20,000 euros (until 2022). Although there are other nominal aids directed exclusively to each Canarian applicant in Cuba and this year up to 100,000 euros of European funds will be delivered for Canarian projects on the Island, for the Leonor Pérez Cabrera Association 30,000 euros have been budgeted for this 2023, which must be distributed among all the Houses. To the one in Havana, although it is the most benefited, they usually go to a little more than 7,000 euros, money that is intended for staff and current expenses and must be justified, although, like everything, it is susceptible to being manipulated. And this is what some associates fear.
“The headquarters in Havana were closed because Culture sent a person practically to the assault, they took the three or four people that were left out of there and they began to shuffle all the papers that were there. I had a video made and everything was mixed up,” Sanchez points out. He agrees on this with the aforementioned Canarian official, who affirms: “They didn’t even leave the air conditioners.”
The property is another of the elements at stake whose fate is unknown. Although the Canarian president seemed safe during his visit to rehabilitate the Havana headquarters, some, like Sánchez, are promoting a change. “There is a group of canaries that opposes it. My opinion and vote is not to recover the building, but to take a small office.”
In Havana, on the contrary, they are eager to recover the premises, although they also fear that the Government wants to recover it and make a new luxury hotel. What the associates are clear about is that they will try to defend what is theirs and prevent a directive to the taste of the regime from being elected.
“If this looting were to occur, Cuba should forget about the Canary Islands and its donation commitments, which were many in the recent past,” Sánchez ditch.
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