Resigned and aimless, the man reflects the misery that spreads in Cuba.
Man walking on San Rafael Boulevard in Havana, this Tuesday. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 11 June 2025 — A bearded man with thin white hair walks with his shoulders down and a lost gaze. That’s how many Havana residents walk when they go out into the street to make a living, to ’resolve’ things. With resignation, rather than resolve. Buy a pound of the rice they’re short on, a chicken leg, some malanga, if they have the money. If they don’t, the solution is simply to let it go, or to beg.
The man, wearing green shorts, matching sneakers, and a white sweater, all his clothes are dirty from top to bottom. He doesn’t carry a bag, so he hasn’t come to do his shopping. He just walks, seemingly aimlessly. His figure is striking in the middle of San Rafael Boulevard in Central Havana, more or less at the same place as where Luis Robles, the “young man with the banner,” demonstrated in December 2020, before the officers descended on him and he was jailed for more than four years.
The slogan is only four years old, and was invented after the video for ’Patria y Vida’ went viral.
And it is striking not because it is unusual to see an elderly person wandering the streets of Havana with their shoulders slumped and their gaze lost, but because of the red, capitalized letters decorating his shabby white shirt: ’Soy de Patria of Muerte.” I am for Homeland or Death. Although it may resemble one of the Revolution’s oldest slogans, this one isn’t quite so ancient.
It is only four years old, and it was invented after the video for “Patria y Vida” went viral. “Homeland and Life.” Months before it even served as the soundtrack to the historic 11 July 2021 protests, the song by Yotuel, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, Osorbo, and El Funky had a host of ridiculous competitors, promoted by the regime in a crude attempt to counter what was already an anthem for Cuban freedom.
One of them was, precisely, “I am for homeland or death,” and was written by the pro-government musician Cándido Fabré. “I don’t stop smiling even if I’ve hit rock bottom,” said one of its verses, set to the rhythm of a son. Nothing could be further from the man who walks down San Rafael Boulevard with his shoulders down and his gaze lost in thought.
The vignette echos the words written just a few days ago by the nun Nadieska Almeida: “On our streets, we see so many fighters walking, saying with pain: ’I fought for this and they have abandoned me.’ They don’t even dare to speak the name. What can we expect? A project that is leading us ever deeper into misery: almost permanent darkness, coal, slow death, suffering, and despair.”
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
These are about 9,000 people in an irregular situation, coming from numerous countries.
Immigration detention center at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. / US Navy
14ymedio, Madrid, 11 June 2025 — Nearly 9,000 immigrants, 800 of them European citizens, could end up in the detention center at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, in eastern Cuba. The news, leaked Tuesday by Politico and expanded hours later by the Washington Post, has raised concerns among some State Department officials because it implicates nationals of allied countries that cooperate with the repatriations.
The process is imminent and could begin this Wednesday, according to documents and testimony from both media outlets. The 9,000 people being evaluated for transfer to Guantánamo include a multitude of Haitians and others from various countries, including Russia.
But what has drawn the most attention is the presence of hundreds of Europeans, from the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, and Ukraine, among those mentioned, although the possibility of more is not ruled out. The officials who provided the information to the media requested anonymity because the information is “highly sensitive.” Even more serious, the document contemplates the possibility that the affected countries will not be notified in advance of the measure.
“The message is to shock and horrify people, to unsettle them. But we are allies,” a State Department official told Politico.
“The message is to shock and horrify people, to unsettle them. But we are allies,” a State Department official—who is familiar with the plan and whose identity has also been withheld— told Politico. According to this source, diplomats from the agency led by Marco Rubio are trying to continue reading
dissuade the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by arguing that it is unnecessary to open a conflict with cooperating countries.
The only known reaction so far comes from Italy, whose government is among those most in tune with the current US administration. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has said he will speak with the Secretary of State on Thursday to clarify the situation but does not foresee any problems.
“Italy has already informed the US administration that it is willing to welcome back the illegal immigrants, with full respect for their individual rights and consular assistance. Therefore, there should be no possibility of Italians being taken to Guantánamo,” he explained on Wednesday. “There’s no need to dramatize the situation because the Italians would be repatriated to Italy. We don’t know how many illegal immigrants there are; we have no data. But we will do everything possible to ensure that no Italians are taken to Guantánamo,” he added.
The opposition, however, has already cried out against the mere possibility. “We are facing an event of unprecedented gravity, which not only affects Italian citizens, but also the overall panorama of human rights in the United States,” said Angelo Bonelli of the Greens and Left Alliance. Centrist Raffaella Paita was not far behind. “The very idea of deporting immigrants to a military base known for human rights violations is indecent and immoral. The government must act firmly to protect our fellow citizens,” she said.
“The very idea of deporting immigrants to a military base known for human rights violations is indecent and immoral. The government must act firmly to protect our fellow citizens.”
Among the preparatory tasks included in the document is the incorporation of medical examinations of those affected, to assess whether they meet the health requirements for transfer. This finding is disturbing, especially given that the Guantanamo Bay detention center is linked in memory to the human rights violations and abuses documented at the prison, which was used for years to house jihadists detained for terrorism.
The prison is a separate facility from the center that temporarily houses undocumented migrants, about 500 in recent months and 70 at the moment. However, a report published in September 2024 by the New York Times, based on internal government reports, revealed that detainees face precarious conditions at Guantánamo, including allegations that they are forced to wear opaque glasses during transfers within the base, that their calls with lawyers are monitored, and that some facilities are infested with rats.
The document states that the stay at Guantánamo would be temporary, but no timeframe is set. Spokespeople for DHS and the State Department have declined to comment officially on the matter, while a Defense official said there were no changes and would not discuss possible “future missions.”
Politico notes that the situation coincides with the exponential increase in detained illegal immigrants, as well as the demand by Stephen Miller, Trump’s advisor on the matter, to arrest 3,000 people per day. This keeps the country’s detention centers at capacity, hence, presumably, the idea of freeing up space with the move to Guantánamo, which the president already announced in January when he ordered its expansion to 30,000 beds for this use.
Migrant rights organizations, which filed a complaint, believe that there is no problem of space and that the use of Guantanamo is for propaganda purposes.
Migrant rights organizations, which filed a complaint, believe there is no such space issue and that the use of Guantánamo is for propaganda purposes, given the terror the name generates and the conditions experienced in the area designated for immigrants. The case is pending before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee.
The Guantanamo Bay naval base, leased to Cuba since 1903—despite the current regime’s opposition—covers 113 square kilometers and houses, on average, about 140 prisoners. According to Democratic Senator Gary Peters of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the cost per detainee is around $100,000 per day.
The Army installed an extension in February with tents for about 3,000 people, but it was dismantled shortly afterward due to lack of use. According to the Washington Post, the current documents state that it is underutilized.
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
In the eastern province, the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences has threatened students, while the university rector asks for “no repression.”
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Havana, this Monday / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 9 June 2025 — The students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing (Matcom) of the University of Havana, the first student group to call a strike against Etecsa’s price increases (el tarifazo) — which affect internet and phone service — is also the first to cancel the strike this Monday, while it continues in other parts of the country, particularly at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Holguín.
The voting at Matcom reveals, however, a high level of discrepancy, since only 51% of participants (173) voted in favor of returning to the classroom, while 82 students were opposed and 25 abstained, according to information provided by the Council of the University Student Federation (FEU).
During the coming week, says the text, they will wait for the results of the working group that is evaluating solutions to the conflict, while other ways of showing their dissatisfaction and concern that do not affect the teaching are considered. They express confidence that a solution will be found to ensure “the right of the people to free access to information and communications”.
The hill of the University of Havana is apparently back to normal]
This Monday, according to 14ymedio, the hill of the University of Havana is apparently back to normal. There was student movement at Matcom, while the cafeteria near Philosophy, History and Sociology was closed for electrical problems. The students rested in the shade on the benches of one of the courtyards.
In contrast, the situation is different in the east of the country, where, according to sources, the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences in Holguín has personally warned the scholarship students, one by one, of the consequences for their future employment. Despite this, the majority of students at the provincial university are not going to class, whose rector has called for “no repression of the students”. Students are coming to the classrooms, according to these same sources, only to meet and organize the protests. continue reading
The unrest generated in the universities remains latent, whatever the decision, to the point that the official media, La Joven Cuba, published an editorial whose title itself points out the gravity of the situation for the authorities: “Time is running out”, and it develops the idea that this crisis “may define the fate of the country”.
Students in the courtyard of the cafeteria of the University of Havana, closed this Monday for electrical problems / 14ymedio
The editorial goes beyond the mere tarifazo in practical terms and questions the actions of a government that makes decisions without the citizenry and without responding “effectively to the demands rightly made”. It says that what happened was predictable. According to 14ymedio sources, the workers of the state telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, did not know until Friday the 30th what the price changes were going to be. “It’s going to be loaded,” said a Holguín employee at the meeting, where several warned of the criticisms that would rain down.
The editorial of La Joven Cuba says that the tarifazo goes beyond a specific issue and channels a malaise that spreads like an oil stain by the impoverishment of “many segments of the population”. Meanwhile, it reproaches, nothing changes in the political culture of the State. “Those who designed and supported the announcement of the measures assumed that it was enough to communicate them for the people to accept,” a decision that not only is a “communication error” but also a “political” one.
The text goes further: it deplores the verticality of the State and points directly to the military conglomerate Gaesa, the real owner of Etecsa, which is “a very difficult obstacle to overcome” for its “preponderance” in the economy and the fact that it “escapes” not only from popular control but also from the supervision of the State and the Comptroller’s Office.
The editorial also asks for explanations – coinciding with what this newspaper warned about after the appearance of Miguel Díaz-Canel in a podcast – because the alleged technological disaster of Etecsa has neither been reported nor planned to avoid this situation. “And, above all, why should the population pay more for services that don’t improve and suffer, without alternative, the consequences of the poor management”?
The text leaves no stone unturned. It accuses the government of leaving the country without a business law in a situation of economic collapse; of continuing with a dollarization that does not offer outlets to the population but only more problems; and, above all, of “entrenching itself in the notion that current conditions cannot be changed”. Although it admits that there are limitations arising from the blockade, this argument cannot be used by the government without being accompanied by the “necessary criticisms of its economic and political management”.
“The Cuban Government seems to be more comfortable making strong denunciations of what the opposition says or does, rather than addressing the real problems facing it internally,” it continues. However, it does consider that “although the PCC has lost leadership, opposition movements organized inside and outside the country have not been able to fill these gaps – among other factors, because they do not present a viable and credible plan to improve the living conditions of the majority”.
The long text ends by urging authorities to realize that the main damage “is not to people’s pockets, but to trust, already difficult to sustain” and reminds them that they have less than two months to act. “If the government is not able to reverse course; if the National Assembly of People’s Power does not reflect this malaise with debate in July; if ultimately, the politics do not change and the integral reform of the economy is not pushed once and for all, the time will come when there will be no room for maneuvering, no political confidence to rescue”.
Meanwhile, groups protesting the tarifazo continue to emerge. On Monday, the messages of rejection from several Christian churches in Cuba, such as the Pentecostal, the Presbyterian and the Baptist, traditionally linked to the opposition, have spread, according to Martí Noticias. In addition, a call for a “boycott” by the exile community continues to circulate on social networks, asking that those in the community not contribute by paying for recharges in the hard currency that the regime so desires.
“I would never dare to ask them to stop sending remittances for food, because, unfortunately, food for Cubans depends on the people they have on the outside. But the phone refills are different; it will not affect them greatly if they cannot access more data with gigabytes”, said activist Saily González Velázquez, who lives in Miami. She, like other exiles, accuses the state telecommunications company of carrying out a new kind of “apartheid” among Cubans, this time a technological one.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
“If this trend continues, there will be no livestock in approximately 15 years.”
Managers interviewed believe that with a little expertise, all producers could meet their agreements with the State / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Madrid, June 10, 2025 — At the end of 2024, Camagüey had 432,749 head of cattle, after losing more than 66,000 in those twelve months alone. ” If this trend continues, in about 15 years there will be no livestock” in the province, concludes Granma, who wants to make clear that it is based on these data and not on speculation. The official daily publishes this Tuesday the second part of an article aimed at addressing the livestock situation in that territory, formerly at the forefront of the sector.
The first, released on Monday, was dedicated to the collapse of milk production, and, although no figures were provided for the liters delivered to industry, it could be concluded that they were smaller than the 50,000 needed for children, according to the officials themselves. In today’s text, the amount is still unclear but the newspaper asks “how a province of 70 and 80 million liters of milk came to be producing less than half of five years ago.” In 2019, Camagüey reached 91.7 million liters, while in 2023 it was 42. The plan for this year is 44.6 million.
This time, Granma focuses mainly on the loss of livestock, without which, logically, the quantity of milk drops. Last year, there were 58,963 deaths “for various causes” in the province, and 7,143 illegal slaughters of livestock, but also 4,300 deaths so far this year. The blame, according to the authorities of the sector, falls on the farmer. continue reading
Last year, there were 58,963 deaths “for various causes” in the province, and 7,143 illegal slaughters of livestock, but also, so far this year, 4,300 deaths have been recorded
“During these last years there has been very bad management of the mass. One of the reasons, to cite an example, is that many producers applied for land for livestock without knowing how to raise it. That is also why there was a rise in the deaths of animals, mainly last year”, says José Antonio Gil Pérez, head of the Livestock Department of the Provincial Delegation of Agriculture.
René Mola Valero, director of Acopio was also interviewed in the first part of the publication, and he agrees, and is in a position to do so because of his “guajiro roots”. He believes that it is easy to comply with the agreement, since fewer animals are always contracted than predicted births, 55% of cows and 30% of heifers. “You already have the necessary conditions to meet the plan. In addition to that, the contracting policy states that the farmer delivers 87% of the milk to the industry”, he asserts.
Gil Pérez insists on the “shortcomings” that are counted so far, among them “producers who did not prepare for the dry period” and others who “made mistakes in the procurement process itself”, which forces a recalculation “to give the farmer who has failed in the first quarter the opportunity to recover in spring”. There is no mention of the reasonable complaints of the producers, who this Monday told Granma that non-payments are the order of the day and that stores with the necessary supplies are empty.
The official gives only a couple of optimistic data, and it is that in March the livestock numbers increased compared to the previous month. However, the numbers still look poor, since the goal for the end of the year is to grow by 55%, and by this date “they should be around 15%”, he notes. However, six of the 13 municipalities in the province are below 10 per cent. Pérez is also pleased that there were more than 1,000 fewer illegal slaughters than in the previous year, although they are already at 1,600.
The disadvantages mentioned by the managers include the lack of nitrogen and transport, both necessary for insemination and which have led to the choice of direct mounting, although the quality of the process suffers. “We are looking for funding to set up a small nitrogen plant at the artificial insemination site and put this important process back into operation,” says Pérez.
If the province’s 533 refrigerators were working well, 384,300 liters could be stored, practically all the milk that can be collected in a day, adds the official, deploring the conditions
The lack of money even affects the refrigeration. Although Camagüey has 177 centers and 44 cold milk delivery points, some 80 refrigerators (15%) are broken, and there are no spare parts to repair them. ” There will always be producers from whom, because of poor conditions or due to distance, it is not economical to collect milk, but those in are the minority”, he says. If the 533 refrigerators of the province were working well, 384,300 liters could be stored, practically all the milk that can be collected in a day, adds the official, deploring the conditions.
Another financial issue is that related to the lack of cash, which hits the sector especially and which, according to Gil Pérez, he is trying to solve by negotiating with the banks, although without results, as seen when talking with the farmers. There is also no hard currency, the incentive used in Nicaragua but not available for the Láctea company.
Danilo Porto Valdes, director of that entity, says they have been punctual with payments in March, without specifying whether the example is random or is just a month in which it was achieved. ” Every day, we pay for 10,305 liters at 70 pesos and lose 31 pesos, because the subsidy only pays 39, which then has to be recovered with other productions; however, deliveries, instead of growing, are decreasing compared to the previous year by 187,200 liters of milk”, he reveals.
The manager complains that the company faces multiple expenses, having to fetch and deliver milk every day with diesel, repairing the trucks they use for delivery and paying their workers, which doesn’t balance with the subsidy paid by the State for the milk. “According to a study carried out by the University, in 2024 we lost 222 million pesos, all without giving up on profits and improving the salary of our workers”, he says. “That is the effort this socialist State-owned company is making to get 25 cents’ worth of milk for each child.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Carlos Lechuga presents his most insolent novel in Madrid
Unlike many Cuban intellectuals who graduate from Literature with a torrent of readings, Lechuga is a child of cinema; he learned more to watch than to read. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 9 June 2025 — Madrid/ Carlos Lechuga presented Sórdida Tropical this Saturday at Arenales, the Madrid bookstore that has become something of a spiritual embassy for the Cuban creative exile. Published by Hypermedia, ‘Sórdida Tropical’ is not exactly his latest novel, but rather his first—one he wrote almost a decade ago and which slept the sleep of innocent beasts until the world, or at least a part of it, was once again ready to read it.
Because Sórdida Tropical, as Ulises Padrón Suárez pointed out in the presentation, is incorrect to the core. Tropical, yes. Sordid, of course. And completely cancelable if it were read by a neo-Puritan reading committee.
The novel drags us through a Havana that reeks of sweat, decadence, stale ideology, and the New Man.
Narrated in the first person—because Lechuga doesn’t know how or want to do it any other way—the novel sweeps us through a Havana that reeks of sweat, decadence, stale ideology, and the New Man. Its protagonist, a nameless, unfiltered man, is misogynistic, fetishistic, racist, sexually predatory, and culturally opportunistic. He seeks excitement in the armpits of the tropics while the city, and an entire country, burns around him. continue reading
Lechuga, born in Havana in 1983, is best known for his films: Melaza (2012), Santa y Andrés (2016, censored by the regime), and Vicenta B (2022), his most intimate work. But he has also demonstrated a keen eye with his pen. If not, just ask those who read ’En brazos de la mujer casada’ (2000) or his most recent essay-novel, ’Esta es tu casa, Fidel’ (2024), where he already warned that his goal was to speak clearly, without unnecessary nuances.
Unlike many Cuban intellectuals who graduate from Literature with a torrent of readings, Lechuga is a child of cinema; he learned to watch more than to read. He studied at the Faculty of Audiovisual Communication (Famca) and the International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños. Perhaps that is why his prose is visual, sharp, without makeup or academic posturing.
“This book must be kept for ten years”
The story behind Sórdida Tropical is a good enough story for another novel. The manuscript was initially rejected by a Spanish publisher who, somewhat panicking, told him: “This book needs to be kept for ten years.” Perhaps she feared that, in a world where even Sleeping Beauty has been criticized for a stolen kiss, someone might mistake the author for his character.
But Lechuga isn’t his nameless protagonist. He doesn’t walk the streets ignoring what he’s stepping on, nor has he needed any ’levers’ to create. More than once, he’s taken the plunge and suffered the corresponding chill of an artist who dares to get wet in an authoritarian context.
The novel oozes references: Guillermo Rosales’s Boarding Home, the dirty fatalism of Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, the tropical existentialism of Desnoes. Lechuga, however, doesn’t seek to imitate anyone. His strength lies in the brazenness with which he writes, in the way he “strips” the sentences and leaves the reader like the characters: vulnerable and “bare-bones.” It’s a kind of literary OnlyFans, but with more neurosis than simple raw meat.
Lechuga has said that he wrote the novel in the midst of the crisis
At one point, Sórdida Tropical was called Nebula, and also Burn Havana, Burn It All. And not for pure effect: this novel is an emotional, cultural, and aesthetic burning. A release without anesthesia that brings out the rot that many prefer to ignore.
Lechuga has said he wrote it in the midst of a crisis: exiled from the cinema, sleeping on his mother’s couch, and with a fierce need to say everything. That is why the book burns. That is why he doesn’t ask permission or offer explanations.
Some might say there’s nothing new under the sun, but the context in which this novel is published elevates the risk. This book of protest—or proteXXXta, as Lechuga calls it—was not born in a time when the brashness of the intruder is celebrated, but in one where the market assumes new moral rules. And its courage doesn’t lie in defending horror; on the contrary, it lies in not sweeping it under the rug.
Welcome, Sórdida Tropical. A book to be read in one gulp, with an arched eyebrow and a fan in the background. It’s not meant to decorate your bookshelf: it’s meant to be handled, discussed, and perhaps—if you’re not afraid of fire—read again.
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Coming from Canada, the ‘Santamaría’ arrived at the port of Cienfuegos on June 6 and is waiting at sea.
The grain arrives on the island imported from countries such as Brazil, the United States, Guyana, and Vietnam / 5 de Septiembre
14ymedio, Mercedes García, June 10, 2025 — The cargo ship Santamaría has not yet unloaded in the port of Cienfuegos because the Cuban authorities have not paid for the rice.
The grain, intended for the quota of the June basic family basket, has not reached the ration markets in Sancti Spíritus.
Ration store employees are forbidden to post “no rice” signs to prevent photos of the shortage ending up on Facebook
The stores and warehouses of the rationed market in Sancti Spíritus received the news this Monday like a jug of cold water poured over them. They will have to continue waiting for the rice that is in the hold of the Santamaría, the ship with the Panamanian flag that came from Canada and arrived in Cienfuegos on June 6. The lack of payment is keeping the cargo on board and consumers waiting without explanation.
“I was going to put up a sign saying there is no rice, but we are directed not to put up anything, because then people take a photo and post it on Facebook,” says the employee of a ration store (bodega) in the Kilo 12 neighborhood, where most of his colleagues have been delaying the issue for days. The bodega is, in fact, so empty that in the last few days, only “some sweets for children are left”. continue reading
The stevedores and other workers in the sector are becoming accustomed to this type of situation. “We were summoned to unload the rice, but the men on the ship won’t deliver it until they see the money,” an employee of the Ministry of Internal Trade tells 14ymedio.
“Before, this happened once in a while, but now every time we have to stop a distribution operation of some product, especially rice, because it has not been possible to pay for the cargo at the port,” he says. “The month is already moving forward, and if this takes a few more days, people here won’t have rice until the second half of June, if they are lucky, and if not, they are left without rice until July or August,” he regrets.
“You can see that the rice intended for the basic basket doesn’t arrive, but the product continues to come in,” says a woman
“You can see that the rice intended for the basic basket doesn’t arrive, but the product continues to come in,” says a woman. In the private stores of Sancti Spíritus, a pound of imported rice now ranges between 240 and 300 pesos, depending on the quality and whether it is sold in bulk or in one-kilo packages, far from the 155 pesos per pound that was imposed as a price cap on the whole country in March.
The grain, indispensable in the daily menu, which Cuba imports from Brazil, the US, Guyana and Vietnam, constitutes in many households an essential nutritional support, given the high prices of animal proteins, vegetables and produce.
The rice that ends up in private stores comes through state importers, which individuals are obliged to use. Even the stevedores, trucks and warehouses used for the goods channel the supply to the MSMEs. But while the products destined for the ration book do not reach the province, “the containers for the MSMEs do not stop.”
The cost to unload the Santamaría is not known, but the amount is part of the “more than 300 million dollars” that the Cuban government annually spends to import rice for subsidized sale, according to vice president Salvador Valdés Mesa in February. The figure may be even higher. According to the 2023 data, 343,305,000 dollars were invested that year, a record figure in the last five years (in 2019 it was 239,725,000 dollars), especially if one takes into account the decline in population.
“We need to increase national production so that this currency can be used to meet other needs,” said Valdés Mesa
“We need to increase national production so that this currency can be used to meet other needs,” said Valdés Mesa, amid the popular unrest that had caused the delay of several months, from the arrival of the rice quota corresponding to December 2024, that finally, in many provinces, Cubans only managed to consume in mid-February of this year.
The delay in unloading ships due to the Government’s inability to pay is becoming more frequent. In April of last year, up to eleven ships surrounded the island for several days loaded with food, as acknowledged by the first deputy minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, in the first podcast of Miguel Díaz-Canel. The situation has been admitted on many occasions by the authorities, who attribute it to the consequences of US economic sanctions that not only affect bulk carriers but, frequently, the electric power.
In September 2024, while the Cubans were suffering one of the largest waves of power outages that year, four tankers waited in Cuban ports for payment before being unloaded. Less than a month ago, there was a similar situation with liquefied gas, which according to the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, has not been supplied in Cuba for 117 of the 150 days of the year.
Translated by Regina Anavy
_______________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
“They don’t care about principles, what matters is winning,” a source close to the FCB tells ‘Swing Completo’
Baseball players who joined the national team of Cuba in the Premier Tournament 12 / JIT
14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, June 9, 2025 — Players who “do not have a political stance against the government” could be “eligible” for the Cuban national team to participate in the 2026 World Classic. According to a source close to the Cuban Baseball Federation, quoted by Swing Completo, “this is something to resolve” in order to have a competitive team.
The source revealed, at least to Swing Completo, that they lack the Government’s approval to make the official announcement. Article 1.6 of the regulations of the National Series states that “players who have not left delegations or contracts managed by the FCB, who are not sanctioned and who possess a Cuban passport or identity card, may be authorized to play, with the prior application of the athlete to the province with which he wants to play and with the approval of the CNB”.
FCB members are willing to renounce the principles that, in the past, were an impediment to calling for other players. “They don’t care about the principles; what matters is to win, or at least not make fools of themselves,” said the same source.
“However”, he stressed, “the players who have spoken ill of the government or take a political position against it would never be considered.” continue reading
One of the figures excluded and reviled by the Cuban authorities for defecting in 2009 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, is Aroldis Chapman, the “Cuban Missile.” The athlete does not forget that they called him “traitor, worm and sellout.” For this reason, he has rejected any possibility of defending Cuba in international events.
“I think all those people who are convening the players who are here and those going to the Classic are the first who should be respected and not everyone else,” he said last March.
The same position is taken by the exiled players who in 2023 formed the Cuban Professional Baseball Federation (Febcube). The group includes Yulieski Gurriel, Guillermo Heredia, Raisel Iglesias and José Abreu, among others.
Official journalist Pavel Otero said that the FCB has already contacted 10 players who play in the United States Major Leagues and several Minor Leagues. Yoan Moncada, Andy Ibáñez, Andy Pagés and Daysbel Hernández would be on that list, in addition to Yariel Rodríguez.
“We have already personally spoken to more than 10 active players in the 40-man Major League roster,” said Otero. “Almost all the headliners for most positions are already written down.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The company will suspend all flights to Santiago de Cuba during the summer.
An American Airlines plane at Havana’s José Martí International Airport on October 30, 2022 / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 8 June 2025 — American Airlines, which manages most of the flights between the United States and Cuba, asked the Department of Transport (DOT) last Friday to decrease the number of its routes to the island this summer, including all connections with Santiago de Cuba. The reason, it explained, is the low demand for trips to the country in the summer period, stirred up by Washington’s policies towards Havana.
The company’s application was made two days after the Donald Trump administration proclaimed the restriction of most visas for Cubans who wish to enter that nation, in addition to citizens from six other countries.
“According to the Report on Excess of Stay [in the US], Cuba had an excessive stay rate with B1 and B2 visas of 7.69%, and with F, M and J visas of 18.75%,” specifies the proclamation. Consequently, the US suspends the entry of Cubans with visas B1 and B2 (business and tourism, respectively), F and M (academic and technical studies), and J (cultural exchanges). “Consular officials will reduce the validity of any other non-immigrant visa issued to Cuban nationals to the extent permitted by law,” it adds.
The company’s application was made two days after the Trump administration proclaimed the restriction of most visas for Cubans
As a result, American Airlines expected a significant drop in the number of flights this summer between Cuba and the US, which would put it in financial difficulties if the DOT does not agree to reduce the number of connections. continue reading
“In view of these current challenges and with a view to deploying its scarce aircraft more efficiently, American seeks a temporary suspension of a limited number of its services between the United States and Cuba for the remainder of the 2025 summer season,” the company said in its application, cited by the digital portal AirlineGeeks.com.
The routes from Miami to Havana and Santiago would be most affected by the cuts, and, at the request of the airline itself, the latter could disappear during the coming months. In the case of the capital, American Airlines hopes to modify the permission granted by the DOT last March to cut up to a maximum of three of its eight daily frequencies from Thursday to Monday, and up to four on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“The previous exemption already covered specific frequencies for American’s service to Camagüey, Holguín, Matanzas/Varadero and Santa Clara, which remain unchanged in the new application,” AirlineGeeks said.
“The previous exemption already covered specific frequencies for American services to Camagüey, Holguín, Matanzas/Varadero and Santa Clara, which remain unchanged in the new application”
According to the platform, the company argued that if granted permission – “limited to the rest of the summer season 2025” – the DOT would give it time to “better adapt its capacity and services to market conditions.” There is no indication, however, of when the Department could issue its verdict.
Cubans living abroad, although far below the number of Canadian tourists, are the second largest group of travelers arriving annually to the island. Many of them come from the United States, where the main community of Cubans abroad is located, so a decrease in flights could have a negative impact on the already depressed tourism rates on the island.
However, it will not be the first time that this sector has faced suspension of air routes due to low demand. In recent years, with the country’s loss of prestige as a tourist destination and the consequent drop in visitors, several airlines have suspended their routes. This is the case of the Swiss Edelweiss and the German Condor.
In the case of Condor, the Cuban government itself decided to take over the route so as not to lose more passengers. According to the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, the connection is the first one established by Cubana de Aviación between the two countries in 20 years.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
“It hasn’t been open for a month,” an employee of a small candy kiosk told ’14ymedio’.
The 3rd and 70th supermarket started selling in dollars in the 90s / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 8 June 2025 — The showdown between the American dollar and the freely convertible currency (MLC) continues to be won by the dollar. The supermarket on 3rd and 70th, in Havana, has finally succumbed to the lack of supplies and the tough competition from its neighbor, the well-stocked store in fulas [dollars], inaugurated in January this year. This Sunday, customers who came to one of the most famous stores since the 90s in the neighborhood of Miramar found its doors closed and the interior dark.
“It hasn’t opened for a month,” said an employee selling jam from a small kiosk outside, the only place that survived the debacle. With his face glued to the glass, a customer tried to decipher whether there was any merchandise left that foreshadowed a reopening. The damaged door, the dirty glass and the floor slabs full of holes do not augur, however, a rapid return from what became more than three decades ago a place frequented by diplomats, officials and foreigners.
This Sunday, customers who came to one of the most famous shops in the neighborhood of Miramar found its doors closed and the interior dark / 14ymedio
The store that was an emblem of dollarization from 1993 and then opened to the public has succumbed due to the weakness of the freely convertible currency. Its shelves and refrigerators, with scarce products, have not been able to compete with the new store, located on that same corner but across the street, on the ground floor of the hotel Gran Muthu Habana. continue reading
Its shelves and refrigerators, with few products, have not been able to compete with the new place / 14ymedio
Belonging to the Caribbean Stores of the Cimex corporation, one of the many branches of Cuba’s all-powerful Armed Forces Business Management Group, the luxurious establishment admits three forms of payment: cash dollars, foreign cards and the so-called Classic card that is recharged with dollars. While the opponent’s butcher shop languished, its refrigerated windows were exhibiting hams, cuts of beef, countless sausages and those chicken breasts that many Cuban families have not tasted for years.
A month ago the battle ended quietly. Collapsed on the canvas from lack of resources, unable to recover, the market in MLC ended up surrendering. On the other side of the street, propped up by greenbacks, its foreign-currency adversary has continued to earn, since then, tens of thousands of dollars every day.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
There is talk of a list of 10 U.S. Major League players to whom the Island will send an invitation.
Yoan Mocada, in the center, during the game against China’s Taipei team / Jit
14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 8 June 2025 — Yoan Moncada, Andy Ibáñez, Andy Pagés and Daysbel Hernández are the players who have expressed their interest in playing with Cuba in the 2026 World Classic. Yariel Rodriguez could join them. He is backed by several Inder managers, despite having broken a contract in Japan, for which the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) demanded 10 million dollars for “damages.”
A source from the Island confirmed to the specialized media Swing Completo that there is a list of at least 10 Cuban Major League players who will be sent an invitation.
Moncada was part of the national team selection that failed in the Premier 12 tournament. The athlete from Cienfuegos, who was injured for most of the year, on that occasion “asked to be included” in the roster of 60 players, according to the specialized media Pelota Cubana.
“My dad wants to see me play for Cuba, and that’s all I care about,” says Andy Pagés / El Extrabase
Moncada, who in 2015 was signed by the US Boston Red Sox for 31.5 million dollars, took advantage of the window to get a third-base contract with the Los Angeles Angels.
The Los Angeles Dodgers player, Andy Pagés, has expressed his desire to join the Cuban national team. The athlete would thus fulfill his father’s wish. “From the beginning, I said yes. Already there were people who did not accept it and others who did,” he told Pelota Cubana USA. “I don’t worry about that. There will always be people who say bad things and others who support me. As I said, my dad wants to see me play for Cuba, and that’s all I care about.” continue reading
However, in the participation of Pagés in the World Classic, warned Andy Lans, “the most logical thing would be to think that the outfielder sees the above-mentioned competition as a possibility to display his skills. He is not the only one.”
In the case of Daysbel Hernández, his talent as a pitcher has been revealed with the Atlanta Braves / Francys Romero
In the case of Daysbel Hernandez his talent as a pitcher has been revealed with the Atlanta Braves in the Minor Leagues; his aspiration is still to reach the top circuit. The FCB has expressed its interest in being part of the pre-selection, and the specialized media see him as an option for a relief pitcher.
Andy Ibáñez was already part of the Asere team version and would be ready to return if there is a call. Another option is Ernesto Martinez Jr., who is with the Milwaukee Brewers and considered a promising prospect.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
A Chinese technology company and a Mexican food marketing company will also be able to do so, although none of the three will be able to directly market their products on the Island.
Maravana has a license from the U.S. Treasury Department to export vehicles to Cuba. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, June 1, 2025 — On Friday, Cuban authorities licensed three foreign companies to do business on the island. They will now be listed in the National Registry of Foreign Commercial Representatives, which will allow them to open branches on the island. The companies are the Mexican food marketing company Michoacana, the Chinese technology company Qingdao Hainergy, and — most notably — the American exporter Maravana Cargo, which already to ships second-hand vehicles from the United States.
With a 90-day deadline to formalize its registration, Maravana Cargo has permits to transport goods, “including sea and air parcels,” food “in all categories, automotive equipment in all categories, parts, pieces, and aggregates for the automotive sector.”
Always cautious when granting prerogatives to foreign companies and private businesses, especially those founded by Cuban-American entrepreneurs, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment has made it clear just what Maravana Cargo can and cannot do on the island. It states that the company may neither “import 0r export directly for commercial purposes, nor distribute or transport merchandise within the the country’s borders.”
As explained at the time to 14ymedio, the company already had a counterpart on the Island: Maracuba, which is responsible, in addition to delivering packages in all provinces – it has a fleet of vans for this purpose continue reading
– for delivering the vehicles to customers when they arrive at a Cuban port.
Maracuba’s counterpart on the island is Maravana, a company which owns a fleet of vans that it uses to deliver packages nationwide. It is also delivers imported vehicles to buyers after they have cleared Cuban customs
Maracuba’s counterpart on the island is Maravana, a company which owns a fleet of vans that it uses to deliver packages nationwide
The export license issued by the Treasury department prohibits the company from selling vehicles to members of the Communist Party and state-owned businesses.
Unlike the narrow license granted to Maravana, which is limited to the automotive and food sectors, those of Qingdao and Michoacana are much broader. The Chinese company has the green light to export to Cuba “goods and services from sectors such as the electronics industry, including household appliances, electrical equipment, renewable energy, information technology and telecommunications, air conditioning, educational and audiovisual media, medical equipment, refrigeration and boilers, lighting and irrigation equipment, motor vehicles, their parts, and spares.”
An addendum to the list of products the Chinese company is authorized to sell include medical equipment and furniture, toys and recreational items, land vehicles (including tractors and other vehicles used in the railway sector) audiovisual production equipment, and other equipment related to the energy sector, including nuclear reactors.
The restrictions imposed on the company are the same as those stated in Maravana Cargo’s license, and are repeated in the case of Michoacana.
The Mexican company is authorized to “produce and market food products
The Mexican company is authorized to “produce and market food products, inputs such as fertilizers, herbicides and other chemicals for crops and livestock, including raw materials for their production, as well as equipment and machinery associated with renewable energy sources.”
The three companies offer services and products that the Cuban government is unable to provide to its citizens, from scarce and expensive food items to vehicles that only a few can afford.
It remains to be seen how these companies will get around restrictions Havana has imposed to control private and foreign businesses and to monopolize the circulation of foreign currency on the island. The inability to repatriate their funds in dollars, a restriction the government implemented last April for all foreign companies operating in Cuba, will be one of these companies’ biggest challenges.
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
Citizens are becoming more aware of their rights and are demanding from the dictatorship the spaces that belong to them.
Several people close a street in Old Havana to protest after several days without drinking water in their homes, on 11 November 2023 / Felipe Borrego/EFE
14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 8 June 2025 — Everything seems to indicate that the ironclad social control established in Cuba by brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro, inherited by the inept Miguel Diaz-Canel, is cracking, although it is fair to say that this is not exclusively a consequence of the opposition’s courage, but rather the chronic inefficiency of the system, which has accumulated endless failures and errors over 66 years.
In a telephone conversation from Santa Clara, Guillermo Fariñas, 2010 Sakharov Prize winner and leader of the United Anti-Totalitarian Forum (Fantu), described how, despite the repression, which has resulted in the constant growth of the prison population for political reasons, citizens are developing a more precise awareness of their rights and demanding from the dictatorship the spaces that are theirs.
According to Fariñas, based on these demands, his organization has established a number of issues that activists promote in the queues that people are inevitably forced to stand in to resolve any situation, particularly those related to food and medicine.
One of the themes is the Castro regime’s unfulfilled promise to restore the 1940 Constitution, which guaranteed an open society with full respect for the rights of citizens. He told us that this is a case that is virtually unknown to younger generations, who have been submerged in complete ignorance of the past. continue reading
The immense majority of those who fought ’Castro-Communism’ in the initial years of the revolution and even afterwards, came from the revolutionary ranks.
Another issue that is brought up in the queues and discussed as if it were casual conversations is the farce that Fidel Castro embodied during the first months of the insurrection, denying that he intended to establish a communist regime, pointing out to people that the dictatorship was established with lies and false promises, an atmosphere that has been perpetuated over time.
The opposition leader, who is categorically prohibited from traveling to the nation’s capital, says that another issue that the militants in the queues is inciting violence, arguing that the Castro-led insurrection resorted to terrorism throughout its administration and that, consequently, they are morally invalidated from questioning anyone who resorts to intimidation to attack the government, since terrorism does not become good just because it promotes socialism.
Another interesting aspect that individuals in the ranks speak of as if by chance, is that the vast majority of those who fought Castro-communism in the initial years of the revolution and even afterward, came from the revolutionary ranks because they had been defrauded by the farce orchestrated by the Castros to perpetuate themselves in government.
The so-called internationalist missions in Africa are widely discussed, explaining to people that they were not genuine acts of solidarity, but rather Castro’s way of compensating for the economic and military aid coming from the Soviet Union, using Cubans as “cannon fodder,” sending them to fight on that continent where thousands of soldiers died and others were abandoned to the most extreme poverty.
The insurrection led by the Castros resorted to terrorism throughout its administration.
Two of the Castro regime’s biggest falsehoods are the free provision of medicine and education. Fantu activists point out that, since 1962, all workers have been directly deprived of 11.1% of their net wages, based on Decree-Law 147/1962. This deprivation also covers Social Security, a condition that does not make it a gift of totalitarianism.
The privileges in food and goods received by members of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior are addressed in the queues, in addition to the reasons that prevent the existence of other political parties. They add that the current energy crisis could have been avoided if, during the period of Chavismo’s rise in Venezuela (2001-2016), the enormous financial loans granted by Hugo Chávez for the remodeling of Cuban thermoelectric plants had been used.
Guillermo Fariñas says that several Fantu activists are in prison for bringing up these issues in the queues, including Oscar Sánchez Madan, political coordinator of the Fantu National Council and resident in the municipality of Matanzas, Pedro Luis Fernández Peralta, Fantu coordinator in the municipality of Diez de Octubre (Havana province), and Amaury Díaz García, municipal coordinator of Fantu in the city of Sancti Spíritus.
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The two sisters arrived as rafters in 2022 and are trying to obtain political asylum.
Yaneris Redondo León and Mariana de la Caridad Fernández León when they were still living on the island. / Facebook
14ymedio, Havana, 7 June 2025 — Sisters Mariana de la Caridad Fernández León and Yaneris Redondo León, exiled in the United States after being sentenced to prison for participating in the 11 July 2021, protests in Havana, could be deported to Cuba if their request for political asylum is rejected. “Today we are afraid that we will be denied that protection,” Fernández denounced on social media, asserting that “returning could be equivalent—without exaggerating—to being sent directly to our deaths.”
The young woman’s post provides few details about the legal process she faces in the United States after arriving in the country illegally with her sister as rafters and requesting political asylum. However, it suggests that her case is one of many that have surfaced with Donald Trump’s new policies, which in recent months have ended several of the avenues opened by the previous administration for migrants to request international protection.
“We ask the United States government to act with justice, humanity, and historical memory. We are politically persecuted. We ask for protection, not privileges,” Fernández emphasizes, asserting that both she and her sister meet “each and every one of the legal and humanitarian requirements to obtain refugee status.” She adds that it would be “deeply unfair to return us to a country where we were already imprisoned for thinking differently and making our political stance clear.”
Fernández and Redondo, who were then 18 and 30 years old, participated in the mass protests that took place in the Mantilla neighborhood.
Their request has been supported by organizations such as Justice 11J, which stated: “What appears to be a decision not to provide protection by the United States authorities contradicts the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the return of a person to a country where they are at risk of being tortured, persecuted, or subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment, even if their asylum application has been denied.” continue reading
Fernández and Redondo, then aged 18 and 30, participated in the mass protests that took place in the Mantilla neighborhood of the capital in July 2021. During the demonstration, they were pepper-sprayed, beaten, and arrested. “My sister and I were locked up for 15 days without a court order. During our detention, we suffered psychological abuse, death threats, and medical neglect,” she says.
Thanks to the “superhuman efforts” of their family, both were released from prison after posting bail of 1,000 pesos each. For more than a year, while awaiting trial, they had to report regularly to the police, who forced them to “sign documents under threat of returning to prison” if they engaged in any act of dissent.
In July 2022, they were finally brought to trial for contempt of court, assault, and public disorder, crimes that, according to Fernandez, were “fabricated” by State Security. Both were found guilty. Redondo was sentenced to seven years in prison and Fernández to five, which was later reduced to years of house arrest.
They were notified that they had 72 hours to voluntarily surrender to the authorities and process their return to prison.
They were notified that they had 72 hours to voluntarily surrender to authorities and process their return to prison. “Faced with the imminent repression and the well-founded fear of what awaited us, we made the most difficult decision of our lives: to flee our country. On November 13, 2022, after a journey of more than 16 hours by sea, we arrived at an uninhabitable island, exhausted and without a clear direction, but with our hope intact. We managed to survive that dangerous journey and finally reach US territory, where we requested political asylum,” she added.
After entering the United States, Fernández even had to be hospitalized “due to the extreme physical exhaustion during the flight.” Now, however, she fears that all her sacrifice will be in vain. “We ask the United States government, the immigration judges, society, and all Cuban exiles to listen to us. Our cause is not individual. It is the cause of a people who continue to demand freedom.”
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
A group of academics, artists and journalists publish a letter of “support and solidarity” with the students protesting huge price increases for internet and telephone service
Students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Havana / Facebook
14ymedio, Havana, 7 June 72025 — After a “process of deep reflection,” the students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Havana – the elite of the “army of white coats” that Fidel Castro considered unconditional defenders of the Revolution – have also joined the virtual protests against the rate increases, known as ‘el tarifazo‘ [huge rate hike], announced by Etecsa, the country’s communications monopoly. The Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) of that institution reiterated, in a cautionary statement, its “firm position” against the decision of the telecommunications monopoly on prices.
The letter, spread on social networks, is a reaction to the meeting held between the FEU and the authorities of Etecsa last Thursday, in which representatives of the students proposed changes such as facilitating the creation of “new national technology companies or associated MSMEs,” to enable cash payment in both pesos and dollars, to reduce the dependence on digital platforms such as Transfermobile and to “promote agreements with countries such as China or Russia to obtain financing and improve the technological infrastructure.” However, the answers given by the authorities were, it says, “insufficient and evasive.”
Raising the tone, the medical students reproached Etecsa for ignoring “the structural needs of millions” and proposing minimal solutions that do not solve the main problem. “We do not accept that a part of the student population should be privileged while workers, scientists, teachers, the elderly and our own families are excluded.”
They also pointed to the FEU administrative authority in the University, from which they expected the “leadership,” “accompaniment” and “support” that “never arrived.” “The absence of our superiors at decisive moments was not only strategic, it was symbolic: an expression of the abandonment that we are no longer willing to tolerate,” says the document in which, a few paragraphs later, the FEU of the faculty breaks with the administration: “They don’t represent us!” continue reading
After ensuring that they will not admit “empty structures or disconnected hierarchies,” the students called on other university faculties of the Island to join in the student demands
After assuring that they will not admit “empty structures or disconnected hierarchies”, the students called on other university faculties of the Island to join in the student demands. “We are not alone. We join the wave of courageous announcements from sister faculties (…). There can be no development without connectivity. There can be no revolutionary morality without the right to criticism. There can be no justice if the majority is sacrificed in favor of a few.”
Similar notes of “rejection” and “disagreement” with the measures of Etecsa have been published by students from other careers, such as Tourism in Havana in recent days. There have also been videos of young people holding meetings with authorities in which they question the decisions of a system that “does not solve” problems and that, despite the daily crises, “takes away what allowed us to escape from reality.”
Etecsa’s policies, which they accuse of violating the contract that obliges the company to notify the population of any change in its services one month in advance, “is not a mistake, it is a pattern,” continues one of the students in these meetings. “How often are decisions taken that affect millions without consulting us? (…) We are taught to resist, but that is not synonymous with submission,” they say.
There is also a message circulating on social networks and WhatsApp groups of dubious origin calling for a “mobilization” of students to hold sit-ins in front of universities and marches on campuses. This text has been denounced as false by the activist Yamilka Lafita, who said that this type of communication ends up “tarnishing and delegitimizing the civic, critical and honest work being done by students from various faculties in the country.”
“This type of content, manufactured by interests outside the student body, only serves to divide, confuse and stop the conscious awakening of those who, from the classrooms, are demanding rights, dignity and real participation,” she highlighted on her Facebook page, which she manages under the name of Lara Crofs.
Other sections of the population have also expressed their discontent and supported the students’ demands. This is the case of a group of academics and intellectuals who have written a letter in “support and solidarity with the students of the Island, calling on the international community to defend the students and teachers from reprisals that they are suffering for making their claims public.”
Other sectors of the population have also expressed their discontent and supported the students’ claims
“For the first time in decades, the Cuban student community, honoring old republican traditions of participation in political and social affairs, has raised its voice in the face of this outrage, even calling for a national university strike,” says the text, adding: “It has become a target of the repressive machinery of the regime, which has already launched an information manipulation campaign, because it hopes that a similar persecution will be unleashed against them as was used against the protesters of July 2021.” At the bottom of the statement, dozens of activists, artists and intellectuals have left their signatures.
The citizen platform Archipelago has also put in writing its “admiration” for the university students, who have decided not only to protest but have called for a student strike. “Who said the young people were lost? You are the protagonists of a unique moment, and you are regaining the hopes of millions. You are making history,” it published, thanking the young people for showing that “Cuba is alive.”.
Despite the unprecedented mobilization that the country is experiencing against a decision taken by the regime, the authorities have made it clear that they will not back down, arguing that Etecsa needs currency to guarantee its services and that there is no other option.
Last Thursday, the law students at Holguín University went one step further and filed a lawsuit against the telecommunications monopoly that probably no court will admit. The students questioned the ’tarifazo’ on mobile and data services, describing it as “exclusive, classist and contrary to the law,” supporting their claim in the Constitution and the Penal Code.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
The boys were identified by some neighbors on social networks as Luis Antonio and Maicol
Archive photo of Bauta, Artemisa / CC
14ymedio, Havana, June 8, 2025 — The municipality of Bauta, in the province of Artemisa, experienced a day of mourning after several fatal events resulted in the deaths of three minors. In the first case, a three-year-old girl drowned on the beach, and two teenagers, 13 and 16, were struck by lightning.
According to the official press, which barely revealed details about the incidents, the girl and her family lived in the municipality of Caimito but were allegedly on holiday in a house at Playa Baracoa.
In the case of the teenagers, the local newspaper, El Artemiseño, said they were struck by lightning around 5:30 pm on Saturday while playing football “outdoors” in the neighborhood of Pita, in the popular council Urban 2 of Bauta. The boys were identified by some neighbors on social networks as Luis Antonio and Maicol, without giving any last names. continue reading
They were struck by lightning near 5:30 pm on Saturday while playing “outdoor” soccer in the Pita neighborhood
While in other countries warnings are frequent to the population to take shelter when there are thunderstorms, the weather reports on the island rarely include calls to the population to protect themselves from lightning, which is usually fatal when it hits someone.
In July 2020, two people died and 12 others were injured in the municipality of Florida, Camagüey, due to an electric shock. The victims of the accident were traveling along a road in the territory when they were struck by lightning, and the survivors had to be admitted to local hospitals.
Cuba records an annual average of 54 deaths from lightning strikes, the leading cause of death due to meteorological phenomena on the island, with 1,742 deaths between 1987 and 2017, according to the latest available data from a study carried out by specialists of the Island’s Meteorological Institute (Insmet).
At that time, lightning deaths exceeded those caused by hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural phenomena, although the erosion of infrastructure and lack of resources to protect citizens may have influenced these figures in recent years.
Translation by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 11 June 2025 — A bearded man with thin white hair walks with his shoulders down and a lost gaze. That’s how many Havana residents walk when they go out into the street to make a living, to ’resolve’ things. With resignation, rather than resolve. Buy a pound of the rice they’re short on, a chicken leg, some malanga, if they have the money. If they don’t, the solution is simply to let it go, or to beg.
