Translating Cuba

The young artist’s mother publishes a handwritten letter from her son in prison and addresses Díaz-Canel: “If there are no political prisoners in Cuba, what are they being accused of?”

14ymedio, Havana, April 20, 2026 — The mother of Ernesto Ricardo Medina, creator of the independent audiovisual project El4tico, has published a letter on social media written by the young man from prison, where he denounces that State Security is pressuring him to record himself admitting guilt and retracting his creations.

Medina and his colleague on the project, Kamil Zayas, were arrested on February 6 in Holguín and are under provisional detention, accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of “propaganda against the institutional order” and “incitement to commit crimes”.

The letter, shared by Mileydi Machín, Medina’s mother, is handwritten and clearly shows signs of poor quality. In it, the young man recounts constant harassment, which he describes as “psychological torture,” and describes how during interrogations he has been pressured to make a video using the words “repentance” and “retraction,” which he vehemently refuses to do.

“To repent and retract would be to admit I did something wrong, or rather, to accept the accusations against us,” Medina writes, adding: “And no less important: it would be a lie. Our intentions were in accordance with the ‘spiritual revolution’ that moribund Cuba needs.”

The mother accompanies the post with a complaint addressed to President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who insisted that there are no political prisoners on the island, in a recent interview with NBC News.

“If there are no political prisoners in Cuba, then what are they being accused of? Are they terrorists? They may cause terror with a piece of paper and a pencil, with an idea. They may imprison them, but they will not imprison their thoughts, nor those of the people,” writes Mileydi Machín.

The young creator also notes in his letter that the agents emphasized that they recommended he make the retraction video “for his own good”.

The staged repentance that State Security is demanding from Medina is a gesture that has been repeated throughout the regime’s history. It immediately brings to mind the case of Heberto Padilla in 1971, when the poet was forced to make a public self-incrimination after being arrested for the content of his work. That false confession sought to “discipline” and reinforce Fidel Castro’s words: “With the Revolution, everything; against the Revolution, nothing.”

In its time, the consequences of the Padilla case were devastating for global support for Cuba. Intellectuals from around the world who had trusted the system proposed by the Cuban state immediately broke with the regime—Simone de Beauvoir, Susan Sontag, Jean-Paul Sartre, Octavio Paz, among 61 other influential figures—considering the case an unacceptable humiliation of freedom of expression.

The staged display of repentance that State Security demands of Medina is a gesture that has been repeated throughout the history of the regime.

Padilla later described in detail—in books like La mala memoria—the methods of torture and coercion he was subjected to in order to force him to make his public retraction. Today, we don’t have to wait years for the publication of the young Ricardo Medina’s memoirs, and the strategies that State Security continues to implement are being exposed.

The legal concept of “propaganda against the institutional order,” incorporated into the 2022 Penal Code, punishes any critical expression that the State considers “incitement against the social order or the socialist State,” without precisely defining what acts constitute that crime, which makes it a legal instrument to persecute dissent.

International organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have denounced the imprisonment of the creators of El4tico and are demanding the release of the young people; these are just some of the many cases of artists, journalists, and opposition members imprisoned for their stance against the government. To date, the NGO Prisoners Defenders reports 1,252 political prisoners on the island.

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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.

“Neither side set deadlines or made any coercive statements,” a regime official said in response to several US media outlets.

14ymedio, Havana, April 20, 2026 — The Cuban government confirmed on Monday direct contacts with the United States, responding to “recent publications in the foreign press,” and asserted that “the meeting was respectful and professional, without deadlines or conditions.” With this brief statement, the government attempts to deny the 15-day ultimatum allegedly issued by Washington during conversations held on April 10.

In a very brief interview published in the State newspaper Granma, the deputy director general in charge of the US at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alejandro García del Toro, stated that “within the framework of the meeting, neither party established deadlines or made threatening statements, as has been mentioned by US media.”

According to information revealed by Axios, the talks included a two-week ultimatum for the Cuban regime to release “high-profile” political prisoners—including Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo—as a “gesture of goodwill.” The request was confirmed by a White House spokesperson to USA Today, who also urged Havana to “stop playing games while direct talks are underway.” continue reading

‘USA Today’ confirms the information from ‘Axios’ and adds that a State Department official and Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro had a private meeting in addition to the meeting of the delegations

14ymedio, Madrid, April 20, 2026 — Talks between the US and Cuba on April 10—revealed by Axios this Friday—included a deadline for the ultimatum reported by the US media outlet. According to USA Today, Washington has given Havana two weeks to finalize the release of “high-profile” political prisoners, including Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo, as a “gesture of goodwill.”

Both artists, members of the San Isidro Movement, have been in prison since 2021 and were sentenced in 2022 to five and nine years , respectively. Otero Alcántara’s sentence ends this July. A more significant gesture would be made in the case of Osorbo, who this May will have served five years in Kilo Cinco y Medio prison in Pinar del Río, but still has four more years to serve after being convicted of “contempt, assault, public disorder, and defamation of institutions and organizations, heroes, and martyrs.”

The meeting held in Havana between the Cuban and US delegations was confirmed to USA Today by a White House spokesman, who added that the government maintains its demand for the release of all political prisoners and suggested the regime “stop playing games while direct talks are underway,” as it has a limited timeframe to reach an agreement.

The meeting held in Havana between the Cuban and US delegations was confirmed to ‘USA Today’ by a White House spokesman, who suggested the regime “stop playing games while direct talks are underway.”
The demand to release prominent political prisoners was raised during that meeting, which was reported by Axios and also addressed other issues, as confirmed by USA Today . These included a proposal to bring Starlink internet service to the island, the swift and effective implementation of economic liberalization measures to incentivize foreign investment, and a thorough resolution to the confiscations of the 1960s. Additionally, the lifting of restrictions on political freedoms was discussed.

In addition to a meeting between the negotiating delegations from both sides, there was a private meeting between Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, ” El Cangrejo ,” grandson of the former president, and a State Department official. In these meetings, the U.S. side emphasized to the Cuban side that the economy is in a catastrophic state and that it is urgent to implement measures before the damage becomes irreparable.

They also stressed that Donald Trump’s intention is for there to be a diplomatic solution, but that if the Cuban leaders are not willing to take that step, he “will not allow” the paralysis to continue.

The events following that meeting came to light last week. Rodríguez Castro attempted to have Havana businessman Roberto Carlos Chamizo González personally deliver a letter to the White House in an effort to bypass the State Department and approach Trump directly. However, according to reports from Martí Noticias and the Wall Street Journal , the Cuban businessman was intercepted at Miami airport and denied entry to the country; his document, bearing an official seal, was also confiscated.

Later, USA Today published a report stating that the Pentagon was accelerating its plans for a possible intervention in Cuba. The institution stated that this did not mean an intervention was imminent, but rather that all options were being considered should the president decide to take such action.

The following day, Thursday, April 16, a US Navy drone flew over the island . The drone is part of the deployment over the Caribbean, established in late 2015, and in the days leading up to Nicolás Maduro’s capture, it was also conducting surveillance off the Venezuelan coast. The overflight has been interpreted as an intimidation tactic by Washington.

On March 12, the Cuban regime announced the release of 51 prisoners following an agreement with the Vatican , but only 27 of them were political prisoners, according to Prisoners Defenders. Furthermore, on April 2, another pardon was announced for 2,010 prisoners, in a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture of solidarity” for Holy Week. To date, all the prisoners released from that group have been common criminals.

This Sunday, the Cuban regime launched a nationwide campaign to collect signatures to reaffirm its commitment to “the unwavering vocation for peace, the essence of the Cuban nation” amid escalating tensions with the United States.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel launched the initiative, called “My Signature for the Homeland,” and it has been announced that the books will be available in all communities, workplaces, schools, and state entities.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel launched the initiative, called ” My Signature for the Homeland ,” and announced that signature books will be available in all communities, workplaces, schools, and state entities for citizens who wish to express their support for the Government’s Declaration, which last Friday denounced the “permanent siege” by the US and its “escalation of threats,” including “pretensions of military aggression.”

“We are calling on everyone, starting today and continuing in the coming days, to sign in support of this appeal, which will constitute a powerful demonstration of support against the genocide that the blockade represents and the deep desire of our people to build a prosperous future and live in peace,” stated Roberto Morales Ojeda, the organizing secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

“Cuba is living under the constant siege of the United States government, whose escalating threats have intensified in recent months,” the regime stated in its official declaration. Díaz-Canel has insisted in recent weeks that the country “does not aspire to war, but we do have the responsibility to defend ourselves against these threats, so that there is no surprise and no defeat.”

According to ‘Axios’, the US warned Cuba’s “elites in power” that they must accept its conditions: release of political prisoners, internet access with Starlink, economic and political freedoms, and compensation for confiscations since 1959.

14ymedio, Havana, April 18, 2026 — Washington is no longer speaking to the Cuban regime in terms of détente, but rather in terms of ultimatums. Axios‘s revelation about the talks held in Havana between State Department officials and representatives of the regime’s leadership on the island confirms what had been suspected for weeks.

On the Cuban side were, among others, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Raúl Castro’s grandson, known as ” El Cangrejo” (The Crab), whom the United States considers a de facto spokesperson for the general. The U.S. delegation did not arrive with the intention of replicating Barack Obama’s thaw, but rather emissaries from an administration that sees Cuba “in freefall” and much closer to social collapse than to any voluntary reform.

According to the US media, Washington’s envoys put several central demands on the table: the release of political prisoners, greater economic and political freedoms for Cubans – including the prospect of free and fair elections – compensation for properties confiscated after 1959, and the opening of the internet through Starlink.

Added to this was a message that, while not explicitly stated as a direct threat, sounded exactly like one: the Trump administration will not allow the island, 90 miles from Key West, to become a greater threat to the national security of the United States. Washington’s evaluation is that “the Cuban economy is in freefall and the ruling elite has a small window of opportunity to implement U.S.-backed reforms before the situation deteriorates irreversibly.” continue reading

This neighborhood in San José de las Lajas was built for healthcare personnel returning from international missions.

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, San José de las Lajas, April 19, 2026 /  Nights fall early in the Reparto de los Médicos [Doctors’ Neighborhood] of San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, not because the sun sets earlier, but because darkness arrives ahead of the daily routine. By seven in the evening, the neighborhood seems immersed in a kind of silent curfew. A few lights escape through the windows. From the street, the silhouettes of those who peek out of their doors to get some fresh air or keep watch for anything strange approaching are barely visible.

In this neighborhood, originally built for doctors and healthcare workers returning from missions abroad, blackouts are not an exceptional event, but rather the permanent backdrop of daily life. Some residents say they’ve lost count of the hours without electricity and that the brief service intervals have become so unpredictable that no one trusts the official schedules anymore. “Here, the power is like a visitor who arrives unannounced and leaves before you can even offer them coffee,” says Marcia, a 49-year-old surgeon who lives in one of the neighborhood’s oldest buildings.

The doctor speaks wearily, leaning against the doorframe of her apartment, holding a flashlight that barely illuminates the entrance floor. She explains that the power outages frequently last more than 24 hours, with only brief respites during the early morning hours. “They turn the power back on for a little while in the middle of the night. That’s when my husband and I get up to cook. Sometimes the beans are left half-cooked because the electricity doesn’t even last an hour. It’s a struggle every night. When I go to the hospital the next day, I feel like lying down in a ward. Honestly, I’m at my wit’s end,” she says. continue reading

The 730,000 barrels received provide a breath of fresh air to the regime for a few weeks, but do not lift Cuba out of its energy crisis.

14ymedio, Havana, April 19, 2026 — The Cuban government is trying to present the refining of 100,000 tons of crude oil donated by Russia in Cienfuegos as a turning point, but the announcement by the Cuba-Petroleum Union (Cupet) offers more of a temporary relief than a solution. The phrase, repeated by the official press—that the refined products will cover “around a third of national demand for a month”—sounds convincing, but it only holds water when different products, uses, and political priorities are conflated.

The first thing to dispel is the illusion of abundance. That shipment of some 730,000 barrels of crude oil won’t magically fill gas stations, revive public transportation, and restore normalcy to the country. According to Cuban energy expert Jorge Piñón, consulted by 14ymedio, that volume could yield “no more than 250,000 barrels of diesel,” a useful amount for setting priorities, but insufficient to resolve the crisis. He said this before it was known that the more efficient Havana refinery was shut down due to a breakdown and that the Russian crude would be processed at the Cienfuegos refinery.

Official propaganda makes no mention of the problems with the capital’s infrastructure and avoids making specific distinctions. It speaks of gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, and liquefied gas as if they would all simultaneously alleviate the needs of households, transportation, and the economy. In an emergency, available fuel typically goes first to distributed generation, the state apparatus, hospitals, vital services, and certain supply chains. The rest receive what’s left over. If the energy crisis of recent months has demonstrated anything, it is that the government doesn’t distribute fuel according to social demand, but rather according to political urgency. continue reading

Abraham Echevarría spreads the phrase “You need to be happy” throughout Havana, the most recent one in the ruins of ISDi

On peeling walls here and there, on a column on Reina and Galiano streets, on the supports of a building about to collapse, at the entrance of a bookstore, in a trash can on San Rafael Boulevard, on San Lázaro Street, on the door of some abandoned warehouses on Infanta Street, in some closed multiplex cinemas, in a Metrotaxi kiosk, in the space of some destroyed ATMs on Obispo Street that serves as a dormitory for beggars, on the glass of an Oficoda on Carlos III, and beyond the city center, in El Vedado, in an old ruined shop on 19th Street, along 23rd Street, on a lamppost next to an illegal stall in front of the ghostly K Tower, on the wall of a school on the corner of G, on the corner with J, on the stairs of the El Carmelo cafeteria. In all these places, and in many other “countless” ones—he doesn’t even remember the number—including Matanzas, Pinar del Río, Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara, Camagüey, and even Panama, the graffiti artist Abraham Echevarría has left his mark over the last few years. Three simple words, usually written in black, but sometimes in another color, with careful calligraphy, that appear before passersby when they least expect them and bring a smile to their face: “You need to be happy.”

The most recent can be seen on the remains of a wall that was once part of the Higher Institute of Industrial Design (ISDi), reduced to rubble last month and quickly transformed into a kind of illegal quarry for construction materials. Why that phrase? Why those places? What motivated this 28-year-old artist and photographer, born in Bauta (Havana) and a history graduate, to carry out this initiative? Echevarría answers 14ymedio via audio messages .

Question: Why did you choose ISDi?

Answer: Because it’s a safe place, nobody minds, they’re not going to come looking for me for painting there. Beyond that, it also interests me because it’s a place that’s slowly disappearing, and the demolished School of Design is a symbol. A symbol of collapse, of falling, of decay, of carrion. In that sense, putting the phrase there means that if it disappears, it will suddenly become stone dust for someone’s house. There’s a quote by Karl Marx that I’ve been thinking about for a while: “The people feel the punishment, but they don’t see the crime”… My phrase has gradually become one of those yellow highlighters for books. The idea is to highlight the obstacles that can exist to happiness. For me, ISDi has become that, in a way. The University of Havana is at a standstill. Supposedly they’re working outside of it, but that’s a lie. The university is at a standstill, and that’s madness in the history of Cuba, and nobody remembers that.

I’ve witnessed the ISDi firsthand because I live around here and pass by it quite often, and I’ve seen the whole process, from when they declared it uninhabitable until people started moving in, until they took away the frames, they took away the beams when it collapsed. It’s an important symbol of collapse; something is falling apart here, even literally. [He pauses briefly, then continues without interruption] I don’t know if the government is really going to fall; I don’t think so. I think they’re going to find ways to negotiate, like what happened in Venezuela, like what happens everywhere. Here, nobody falls anymore; everyone negotiates. Those old ideals, fighting to the last drop of blood, that’s a lie. Here, everyone is going to negotiate and create their own movie.

[See more photos here]

Question. Did you paint it during the day or at night?

Answer. By day, painting at night is a risk, because then I’d be hiding from something. I always paint during the day, and almost everyone paints during the day. I’m not hiding from anything, nor am I writing anything I have to hide from. Everyone understands that I’m talking about other things; I’m not even talking about politics. Clearly, I also talk about politics, because “you need to be happy” certainly refers to human happiness, and everything that affects or influences it falls within that discourse—it’s an infinite discourse—but politics itself isn’t my subject. “You need to be happy” isn’t about one specific thing; it’s a mirror where people see themselves, where people can see what obstacles in their lives are preventing them from being happy.

Question. Have you received any feedback from people?

Answer. Yes, of course, people contact me, tell me about their lives, and thank me. I’ve met everyone from university professors who are depressed because their lives have no meaning and suddenly they feel uplifted, to people who were on their way to a meeting with State Security and saw the poster along the way and it gave them strength. People have told me about suicide attempts and how they saw the phrase and decided not to do it, how they regained their will to live after seeing it. People have told me they’ve come out of the closet, that they’ve reconciled with their mothers… When people meet me in person, they thank me. But not everyone knows or sees the phrase. People are also blind to it, and even though it’s in many places, not everyone sees it, not everyone takes the time to look at it. Because it takes a little time. Most of those who don’t see it are in cars; I write on the street, for the people sweating under the blazing sun. I write for everyone, but especially for those people.

Question. Besides this graffiti, have you done other types of graffiti, with different messages?

Answer. I started doing a different kind of graffiti, where I would choose a phrase from popular slang, assign it an object, and represent it as if it were propaganda from the 1920s. I studied history at university, and my conclusion as a student was that Cuba has a long-standing, central identity crisis, and that is one of its biggest problems. My goal at that time was to try to contribute a little to strengthening that identity through art and street art, and I chose slang as a genuine element of Cuban identity, along with objects very typical of the island, to try to revitalize that identity that I saw as being in crisis. Initially, my project also included making sweaters, caps, and things that people could use in their daily lives, but that part never happened because of money.

After a period of crisis with Cuba—with society, with the people, with the government, with Havana’s own cultural circles—I decided to focus solely on this phrase, limiting myself to having a social and spiritual role in the city. The other project lost its meaning; it seemed like an unnecessary effort without results. Just as some people don’t understand “you need to be happy,” imagine trying to understand another, more complex phrase with a drawing. I kept those three words, along with a typeface chosen to be easily recognizable from afar and to also activate the subconscious, because it’s the calligraphy they teach us in schools. I don’t write like that. It was chosen with an aesthetic that stands out, that is unavoidable, so that anyone who glances by will recognize it immediately and it will attract attention.

Question. When did you start writing this message?

Answer. I made the first ones around 2018 or 2019; it was one of many phrases. I kept only that one for about four or five years. Occupying public space is a significant responsibility, especially given the political risk involved in Cuba, where you can be labeled as engaging in counterrevolutionary propaganda and who knows what else. If I’m going to do it, I have to do it because it’s truly worthwhile, and for me, this phrase is, beyond any aesthetic considerations. It’s not just a drawing, “oh, how pretty,” but something people can actually learn from.

It also provides me with a buffer against any situation with State Security, which, of course, I’ve had, and that’s why it’s important to make this clear: I’m not talking about the Cuban government, I’m not talking about Cuban leaders, I’m not talking about the embargo or the United States, but about a basic human need. That basic human need, which is happiness, is constantly at risk in Cuba; it can even seem like a luxury.

Cubans who read this phrase, of course, think, “How am I going to be happy today?” But it’s a phrase that resonates equally with people from all over the world. If I left Cuba, I would still paint it. Perhaps I would write other phrases as well, but I would continue writing that one, because I believe it speaks to humanity, to basic human needs, and it’s like the beginning of fulfillment, seeking that happiness, which, of course, isn’t about going to Disneyland or owning a car, but something else entirely. But that’s another interview; it’s a question that’s not relevant here.

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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 ‘Miami Herald’ poll also indicates that exiles oppose the deportation of law-abiding migrants.

14ymedio, Madrid, April 17, 2026 / Support for a US military intervention in Cuba is even higher today among Cubans who arrived in the US after 2000 (88%) than among those who went into exile between the 1960s and 1970s (80%). This is one of the findings of a survey conducted by the Miami Herald in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties in Florida, the results of which were published this Thursday. This figure, specifically, suggests that the hardening of positions is not only linked to the memory of the initial exile, but also to more recent experiences in Cuba.

Some 79% of those surveyed – 800 people, both Cubans and Americans with dual nationality or ancestry on the Island – are in favor of “some kind of military intervention,” almost the same percentage that rejects any negotiation that does not involve a regime change.

Specifically, 78% oppose agreements that would allow the current political system to continue in exchange for economic reforms, while 77% express dissatisfaction with any improvement in living conditions that is not accompanied by a transition to democracy. Similarly, 68% reject talks that could strengthen the Cuban government, even if these talks contribute to alleviating the country’s crisis. continue reading