The gate of the Leonor Pérez Cabrera Canarian Association of Cuba, in Old Havana, opens just a few centimeters. The face that appears on the other side is that of Dayamí Blanco Jorrín, right-hand man of the vice-minister of culture Fernando Rojas in the management commission that intervened in the entity and that organizes the elections for a new president, in the midst of a deep crisis.
Until a few weeks ago, when 14ymedio published his first report about the Association, the building remained locked tight and its phones out of service. Lately, however, a certain hustle and bustle has been noticed around him. Among those who enter and leave the building on Monserrate Street are the “Culture inspectors”, as some associates call them.
“The group led by Rojas says that in order to carry out the voting, the registration of associates must be updated, but they are the ones who are making the new registrations,” laments Saúl, a member of the Association, born in Tenerife and living in Havana. . This Spaniard, who prefers to change his name to avoid reprisals, lists a string of economic mismanagement.
“The problems of the Association are not from now, they take time and they were forged in the lack of control and the lack of rigor when it comes to managing the finances that characterized the Association since it was created in 1992,” laments the canary. “There has not been a time of order and control over resources, not even with Carmelo González [su fundador] nor now with Fernando Rojas”.
“To elect a president, meetings with the associates must first be held, then an extraordinary general meeting must be called and the electoral board formed. Only that entity can update the register of associates”
Saúl considers that “the financial gaps left by bad management of the Association are affecting the electoral process” which is just taking its first steps. “Rojas and his team want to privilege those who have helped them fill some financial gaps but they also need someone who is faithful to them in order to continue controlling” the entity once the mandate of the current management commission ends.
Saúl details some of the irregularities: “To elect a president, meetings with the associates must first be held, then an extraordinary general meeting must be called and the electoral board formed. Only that entity can update the register of associates.” However, the canary assures that this sequence has not been followed and the association has continued without a leader since May 2022, when Lázaro Rivero was removed from the presidency by the management commission due to financial irregularities detected.
As Saúl explains, there are currently three candidacies for the presidency of the Association: that of Juan José Cabral Mesa, current president of the base body of the municipality of Playa in Havana; Juan José Marrero Lorenzo, originally from the Canary Islands, and another is that of a Spanish businessman who would have helped cover part of the missing 17,000 euros detected in one of the reviews carried out by the commission.
This last candidacy, warns the canary, “they had it hidden at the beginning, and among the associates it is rumored that it is supported by Dayamí Blanco Jorrín, that is, that it is the candidate for which Fernando Rojas is betting.”
“Now, the regularization of the associates is being delayed for two reasons: to give an advantage to the candidacy supported by the management commission and to make time for it to still be in command for when the first batches of money from the grants from the Canary Islands”, estimates Saúl. “If the commission handles the lists of associates, the candidacies, the electoral commission and the vote count, then you can foresee what will happen in the elections: they will impose their candidate.”
Although on paper the migrant associations are autonomous, they are closely controlled by the Ministry of Culture. Blanco Jorrín has been for years, even before the current crisis, the person designated by Rojas to monitor operations at Leonor Pérez, but his figure gained much more power as of May 2022, when the management commission took possession of the building and the finances of the Association.
The management commission itself is accused of mismanagement. “He even has the bus of the Canary Islands Society bouncing in the street and nobody knows where the money he collects is going, nor is it known whose hands the vehicle that belongs to the Association ended up in,” the Canarian associate stresses.
The subsidies that the government of the Canary Islands grants to Leonor Pérez Cabrera are not very bulky. In recent years, the entity has been receiving 15,000 euros annually (from 2016 to 2020) and 20,000 euros (until 2022). This 2023, 30,000 euros have been budgeted, which must be distributed among all the Houses. A little more than 7,000 euros could go to the one in Havana, although it is the most benefited, for payments to staff and current expenses.
For Pedro Sánchez González, a close collaborator in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria of the Cuban association during the period prior to the official intervention, the delay in the electoral process is due to the fact that both the Canary Islands and Cuban authorities are dragging their feet. “The Cuban government wants to impose its opinion and the Canary Islands do not want to know anything about tinkering. They have enough trouble in the Canary Islands to get into another mess.” Sánchez adds that in the face of the crisis that the Association is going through “measures are going to be taken with various delegations” in the Cuban provinces.
Many branches of the main Association located outside of Havana “do not fulfill their purposes and their members, presidents and advisors have come to profit to the detriment of aid to the Canaries”
Many branches of the main Association located outside of Havana “do not fulfill their purposes and their members, presidents and advisers have come to profit to the detriment of aid to the Canary Islands,” denounces Sánchez. “Headrooms turned into nightclubs that nobody knows where their income ends up, diversion of membership fees and private patios renovated with aid money but that do not bring benefits to the Canarian community,” Saúl detailed in turn.
A Spanish diplomatic source acknowledges that the electoral process is stuck. “It is not advancing, among other reasons, due to the lack of designation of the electoral commission.” However, he believes that “with the irregularities in the use of funds” that came to light during the investigation carried out by the Ministry of Culture “there has been some process of correction.”
But whether someone close to Fernando Rojas or another of the candidates wins the presidency, the process seems to take much longer and the Casa Canaria will remain closed for a long time. “They took a technician from the Canary Islands who gave a very bad report on the headquarters building,” details Pedro Sánchez. “He suffers from aluminosis [lesión del hormigón] in its main structure, including foundations, and is in danger of collapsing”.
Meanwhile, the Canarians in Havana are still waiting to be allowed to meet in another location and to speed up the registration process to vote for a new president of the Association.
María Eugenia, a 65-year-old descendant of a Canarian father who lives in Central Havana, is clear in her criticism: “There is a lot of discomfort because we have run out of the Monserrate street store but also without anyone to represent us as children and grandchildren of canaries,” he laments. “I myself have wanted to go to pay the membership several times and the only thing I find is the closed door.”
“I have my registration and if there had been a voting process for a new president, I imagine they would have contacted me.” María Eugenia, retired, widow and with a pension of less than 2,000 pesos (less than 17 dollars at the bank exchange rate) a month, dreams of “fixing all this problem and starting to receive aid, what is needed.”
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