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WORLD NEWS Thursday 23 June 2022
Storm’s damages put focus on Cuba’s dire housing crisis

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ century old, but the build-
Associated Press ing permit mandatory in
HAVANA (AP) — Olga Lidia Cuba was never issued.
Lahera lives with her daugh- Lahera, 65, was a state em-
ter and two granddaugh- ployee until she requested
ters in a tiny 15-square- sick leave. The four of them
meter (160-square-foot) live off what the Cuban
apartment with peeling state give her daughter to
plaster walls that has barely take care of her and the
enough room for a shelf girls. “When it rains, the
with pots and a rickety walls here pick up a current
sofa bed. A cloth curtain (become electrified),” she
separates the space they said. “They are bad, but I
use to wash up. There is don’t know to what degree
no bathroom. A bit farther they would fall. They are all
down Gloria Street in the cracked; the building, the
Talla Piedra neighborhood structure is very old.”
of Old Havana, Anet Ayala For decades in Cuba, resi-
and her brother Wilmedis dential construction was
live on the second floor of wholly controlled by the
an old building with cracks socialist government and
in the walls and ceilings so no legal real estate market
big that air, light and even existed. People could not
water can pass through. Anet Ayala and her dog peer from her balcony in Havana, Cuba, Monday, June 13, 2022 sell homes.
The first storm of the 2022 Associated Press In 2011, President Raúl Cas-
hurricane season, which tro authorized the buying
hit Cuba in mid-June, col- million homes at the end of In 2019, 44,000 homes were control her emotion while and selling of homes as
lapsed or damaged doz- 2020, almost 40% of which built 35% by the state and showing the effects of the a way to reactivate the
ens of homes in the capital were just in fair to poor 65% by individual fami- latest downpours, including economy, giving more
that were already in poor condition. Cuba needed lies. In 2020, that number a strong musty smell. space to private enterprise.
condition, tearing off piec- another 862,000 homes to dropped to 32,000 43% by “Tomorrow a wind will Thousands of people ac-
es of roof, balconies and adequately house its peo- the state and 57% by indi- come and this (roof) will fall quired houses or invested in
facades. ple up from an officially viduals. Last year, about on us and we will be two fixing up the ones they had,
That highlighted one of Cu- estimated shortfall of about 18,000 units were built (47% more dead,” said Ayala, which suddenly gained
ba’s main social problems: 500,000 in 2005. by the state and 53% by in- 36, whose face is partially capital value.
a shortage of quality hous- The government an- dividuals). There are no of- paralyzed after surgery for With an increase in tourism
ing caused by decades of nounced a major national ficial figures for the current a brain tumor. and a rapprochement with
inadequate maintenance, program to solve the prob- year. She and her brother Wil- the United States in the mid-
a lack of new housing and lem in 2018, but the latest That leaves families like Ay- medis Horta Ayala, a dle of that decade, some
impediments facing peo- official figures show a dra- ala’s with little option. 39-year-old physical edu- areas like Old Havana saw
ple trying to fix up their own matic drop in recent con- “When it rains here every- cation teacher at a pri- a wave of gentrification,
homes. struction as the country has thing gets wet, furniture, mary school, filled out all often aided by funds from
An official review last year struggled with a pandem- the refrigerator. We have kinds of paperwork to get families in the U.S. That hit
found that the island of ic-stricken economy and nowhere to move things authorization to legally fix a wall with the pandemic
11.3 million people had 3.9 tighter US. sanctions. to,” said Ayala, trying to the place, which is about a and Trump-era sanctions.q

Former education minister in Brazil is

jailed in graft probe

By DÉBORA ÁLVARES dia showed in March that The former minister denied
Associated Press Ribeiro had two Evangeli- any wrongdoing when the
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A cal pastors as unofficial in- scandal broke.
former education minis- termediaries approaching Bolsonaro, who at the time
ter of Brazil’s President Jair mayors who could help said he would “put his
Bolsonaro was arrested on Bolsonaro’s campaign. The face to the fire” for Ribeiro,
Wednesday in connec- former minister is an evan- changed his narrative af-
tion with a federal police gelical pastor himself. ter his former minister was
corruption investigation, Both favored municipali- jailed.
further hurting the far-right ties governed by their allies “If he is guilty, he will pay,”
leader’s bid for reelection. and demanded bribes, in- Bolsonaro said in a radio in-
Milton Ribeiro left the post cluding a kilo of gold, the terview. “Let him answer for
in March after Brazilian me- reports said. his actions. I pray to God Federal police leave the headquarters of the Education Ministry
dia reported leaked con- Ribeiro is accused of influ- that there is no problem. after searching for evidence connected to the work of former
versations of him with may- ence peddling, corruption, But if there is a problem, Education Minister Milton Ribeiro in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday,
June 22, 2022.
ors who would allegedly prevarication, and admin- the federal police are in- Associated Press
be favored by the federal istrative advocacy - mean- vestigating. It’s a sign that
government in the distribu- ing under Brazilian law he I don’t interfere with the Brazil’s president is facing leads all polls for October’s
tion of the budget. could have used his min- federal police because it an uphill battle for his re- vote. He hopes to return to
The leaked conversations isterial job to promote pri- would be staining me, ob- election. Former President the job he had between
reported by Brazilian me- vate interests. viously.” Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 2003-2010.q