Translating Cuba – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

The Paradox of US-Cuba Relations: Exports Grow as Sanctions Increase

The island increasingly depends on fuel, vehicles, and medicines sent by “the empire,” even as food purchases show a small decline

Between January and July, the accumulated value reached 674 million dollars, 61.8% more than in the same period of 2025. / ACN

14ymedio, Madrid, 4 September 2026 / U.S. exports to Cuba reached a monthly record of 148.9 million dollars in July, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which has tracked trade in goods between the two countries since 1992. The figure far exceeds June’s 117.6 million and is more than double the 73.2 million recorded a year earlier, in July 2025.

The jump in the latest month confirms the trend seen since January: U.S. sales to the island are growing rapidly even as Washington tightens sanctions against the Cuban regime. Between January and July, the accumulated value reached 674 million dollars, 61.8% more than in the same period of 2025.

The accumulated figure for this period already equals 83% of the 809.6 million dollars the U.S. exported to Cuba during all of last year. If the current pace continues, 2026 could become one of the years with the greatest exchange of goods between the two countries in recent decades.

Fuel has become one of the main drivers of the increase

Washington’s pressure campaign has led the island to depend on the U.S. to import food, fuel, and medicine. Axios went so far as to describe this situation as Cuba having become a de facto “renegade colony” of the United States.

Fuel has become one of the main drivers of the increase, after Washington authorized at the start of the year sales of petroleum derivatives to the Cuban private sector. In June, the figure reached a record 47,842,674 dollars, double the previous month’s total and half continue reading

of the accumulated total for 2026. Overall, U.S. exports of fuels and oils had reached 95.7 million dollars between January and June, according to records compiled by the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.

By contrast, Cuban purchases of food from the United States have declined compared with the previous year. In the first six months of 2026, U.S. exports of agricultural and food products totaled 218.8 million dollars, 10% less than in the same period of 2025. Chicken remains the top product among Cuban purchases, but sales of other foods have fallen in recent months.

In the first half of the year, exports of automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and other vehicles had exceeded 41 million dollars

Vehicles are the other major component of the new trade pattern. In the first half of the year, exports of automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and other vehicles had exceeded 41 million dollars. The value of these sales has soared since 2022, when Washington began authorizing certain vehicle exports to Cuban citizens and private businesses. By 2025, vehicle sales had already reached about 149.4 million dollars.

The phenomenon reflects growing demand from the Cuban private sector, which turns to U.S. suppliers to obtain products that the Cuban state fails to import in sufficient quantities.

The increase is notable because it is occurring while Washington maintains its trade embargo on Cuba. But this framework does not amount to a total ban on U.S. exports. Commerce Department regulations permit certain transactions, including sales of agricultural products and – through licenses – medicines and medical devices. In addition, the exception for Support for the Cuban People, in the export regulations, authorizes certain goods intended to improve “living conditions” and support private economic activity.

The U.S. has sold 674 million dollars in merchandise to Cuba between January and July

The Census Bureau’s statistics account for the total value of merchandise exported and do not make it possible to determine what proportion corresponds directly to MSMEs, the Cuban state, or other buyers.

The trade relationship between the two countries also remains highly unbalanced: while the U.S. sold 674 million dollars in merchandise to Cuba between January and July, U.S. imports from the island reached barely about 500,000 dollars in that same period.

An analysis published in April by the consulting firm Auge noted that U.S. exports to Cuba grew 148% between 2021 and 2025, from 327 million to about 810 million dollars, in parallel with the expansion of MSMEs and the increase in remittances from the U.S. Auge estimated at the time that U.S. exports could reach as much as 1.3 billion dollars by 2028 if current conditions persist and trade opportunities expand.

Translated by GH.

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Since January, the Cuban Economy Has Been Falling at Twice the Rate Recorded at the Worst Point of the Special Period

Economist Pedro Monreal estimates a GDP contraction of up to 31% this year, three times more than the ECLAC forecast.14:15

Rising prices will significantly worsen the decline in goods production in 2026. / 14ymedio

The drop in gross domestic product could be double that of 1993, considered the worst year of the Special Period. This calculation comes from Pedro Monreal, a Cuban economist residing in Spain, and is based on data regarding State Production of Goods and Services for the first half of 2026, published this Tuesday by the National Office of Statistics and Information. Projecting the provided figures, the expert estimates that GDP could fall this year between 26% – in the best-case scenario – and 31% in the worst.

Monreal describes the situation as a “recession that is no longer within the realm of the forecasts.” The figures are double the 14.9% drop in GDP that occurred in 1993 and triple the ECLAC estimate of 10.3% for this year.

To calculate this, the economist used the value—published in national currency—of the production of goods and services by the state sector, which totaled 495.353 billion pesos—20.6397 billion dollars at the official exchange rate of 24 pesos per dollar—13.4% less than last year. In the first half of 2025, the figure was 571.760 billion pesos—23.8233 billion dollars—but inflation changes the picture.

Monreal estimates two possible deflators to complete the calculation based on the same period in 2025. If prices had risen by 15%, GDP would have plummeted by 26.4%, while if inflation were 20%, the figure would climb to 30.7%.

Monreal’s estimates for this year’s GDP. / PM

The expert believes these figures could set the tone for the rest of the year, as there are no signs of improvement. Although the picture of the Cuban economy is incomplete due continue reading

to the lack of information from the private sector—which is playing an increasingly important role in the country—the state sector, which has concentrated the majority of national activity for decades, continues to dictate the trend.

Monreal had already warned a year ago, and on more than one occasion, that Cuban economic data showed it was reaching a point worse than in the 1990s, when the fall of the Soviet Union and the resulting end of subsidies left the Cuban state vulnerable. However, the deterioration has taken a giant leap forward since the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and the US sanctions, as the economist points out.

“The Cuban economy was already suffering from a structural crisis with internal distortions—low productivity, a distorted investment pattern, fiscal imbalances, a precarious electrical grid, and incomplete and failed reforms—but the short-term worsening is mainly explained by the tightening of US sanctions in 2026,” the specialist summarizes.

In his view, the oil blockade has cut off “access to the fuels that sustained electricity generation, transportation, and food distribution; the broad group of entities ‘designated’ on the sanctions lists, and secondary pressures have driven out hotels, airlines, and payment channels.” Against this backdrop, tourism, fuel, and foreign exchange, which had already entered negative territory in 2019, have collapsed, leading to a humanitarian crisis that is worse than that of the 1990s, “particularly in terms of vital services, inequality, and hopelessness.”

“Although the exact GDP figure for the first half of the year is not yet statistically confirmed, the contraction is already translating into hunger, blackouts, health collapse and exodus, a deterioration that the 2026 US sanctions did not create on their own, but did trigger by multiplying the internal failures of a structurally fragile economy,” he says.

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A Surgery in Havana Forces the Postponement of Di Battista’s Transfer to Italy

The former leader of the Five Star Movement remains admitted to Hermanos Ameijeiras and there is still no new date for his repatriation

The former deputy, 48, had arrived in Cuba to work on a series of reports. / Facebook/ Alessandro Di Battista

14ymedio/ Agencies, Havana, September 5, 2026 / The former Italian deputy Alessandro Di Battista underwent surgery in Havana after suffering a new health setback that forced the postponement of his return to Italy, initially planned for this Friday and later for this Saturday. The politician, known as the Italian Che, remains admitted to the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital and, for the time being, there is no new date for his repatriation.

The operation was confirmed this Saturday by the Italian news agency Ansa, which noted that the operation forced the transfer to be delayed. The Schierarsi association, of which Di Battista is vice president, limited itself to stating that his return had been postponed and asked for “maximum discretion and caution” when disseminating information about his health status.

“Alessandro Di Battista’s return to Italy, planned for today, has been postponed,” the organization reported. “We ask everyone to maintain maximum discretion and caution in disseminating information, while awaiting further updates.”

According to what was explained at the time, the costs of the transfer would be covered by the travel insurance he had taken out before traveling to Cuba

Di Battista has been hospitalized since last August 28, when he suffered a severe episode while in Santa Clara, where he was preparing a series of reports on Cuba. After initially being treated in that province, he was transferred to Hermanos Ameijeiras, in Havana.

The situation seemed to have evolved favorably in recent days. The former leader of the Five Star Movement himself had reported last Wednesday that he was feeling “much better” and announced that he would leave the island on September 4 aboard an air ambulance. According to what was explained at the time, the costs of the transfer would be covered by the travel insurance he had taken out before traveling to Cuba.

The departure, however, was first postponed and ultimately suspended following the surgical procedure.

The Italian press still offers few details about continue reading

what forced doctors to operate on the politician. Ansa does not report the type of surgery or provide a precise diagnosis. According to information gathered by the newspaper Corriere della Sera, the former deputy reportedly suffered a stroke in Santa Clara. After regaining consciousness, he was transferred by ambulance to Havana, where he remained awake throughout the trip and underwent a contrast CT scan at the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital. Cuban doctors then advised against his transfer to Italy, considering that such a long trip could pose risks to his health.

A medical team from the Gemelli polyclinic in Rome traveled to Cuba to collaborate with specialists from Hermanos Ameijeiras and assess the conditions under which Di Battista could be transferred to Italy

The case has also mobilized Italian doctors. A medical team from the Gemelli polyclinic in Rome traveled to Cuba to collaborate with specialists from Hermanos Ameijeiras and assess the conditions under which Di Battista could be transferred to Italy. Ansa notes that the Italian professionals worked alongside the Cuban medical team.

The former deputy, 48, had arrived in Cuba to work on a series of reports for Il Fatto Quotidiano and its audiovisual branch, TvLoft. His hospitalization interrupted the trip while he was in the center of the country.

In his first messages after being admitted, Di Battista praised the care received from Cuban doctors and conveyed an optimistic picture of his recovery. The announcement that he would travel by air ambulance reinforced the impression that the most delicate phase was behind him.

The new postponement and, above all, the news of the surgery now show that his condition has required more complex care than was initially known.

Translated by GH

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Shaka, a Chemical Jolt with Massive Doses of Caffeine, Vodka, and Sugar, is Consumed in Cuba

Manufactured in Spain, where its sale is prohibited, this beverage is consumed mainly in Cuba.

Among the accumulating garbage, empty Shaka cans stand out, with their bluish color and the characteristic lion in their logo. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana/Madrid, September 4, 2026 – On sidewalks or along the curb, among all the accumulating garbage, empty Shaka cans stand out, with their bluish color and the characteristic lion in their logo. It is a scene that any Cuban who goes out into the street can observe, and tangible evidence of its high consumption on the Island, which has health authorities on alert.

Where did this beverage come from, whose effects were first warned about, unusually, by the Government itself? According to its label, W Shaka, its official name, is manufactured and marketed by Venerable Capital S.L., a company based in Madrid. However, it is neither sold nor consumed in Spain, as an employee of the firm confirmed to 14ymedio. “We are the producers and distributors, but we do not sell in Spain; we only send the product abroad,” the employee explained by telephone, without being able to explain why.

In the European country, ordinary energy drinks, without being mixed, are highly regulated, and consumption in regions such as Galicia is directly prohibited for minors, according to a law passed at the end of last year. One of the countries where Venerable Capital sells, Ivory Coast, has prohibited imports of Shaka and other similar beverages since 2023.

The composition of the product, in its usual presentation on the Island, the vodka version, consists of 18% alcohol by total volume and vitamins B2, B6, B12, niacin, and pantothenic acid. / 14ymedio

Shaka would not be legal in Spain either, and not precisely because of the alcohol or its combination with taurine or caffeine, something that is not prohibited per se. It is the vitamins it contains that are prohibited from being mixed with alcohol, according to European regulations. Specifically, Regulation 1925 of 2006 establishes that vitamins or minerals may not continue reading

be added to beverages containing more than 1.2% alcohol.

The composition of the product, in its usual presentation on the Island, the vodka version, in a recognizable blue-and-black can, consists of 18% alcohol by total volume and, among other ingredients such as sugar and preservatives, vitamins B2, B6, B12, niacin, and pantothenic acid. The vodka content is 45%, almost half, while taurine accounts for 0.37%, the equivalent of 370 milligrams per 100 milliliters, and caffeine for 0.03%, or 300 mg/liter.

Showing this equivalence is relevant: above 150 mg/l, the European Union considers it a “high caffeine content,” and alongside this specific warning, the label must state, “Not recommended for children or pregnant or breastfeeding women.” This is a requirement Shaka does comply with, although bureaucratic formalities do nothing whatsoever to reduce its danger.

Last Sunday, a report in the official press again warned, based on several accounts, about the harmful effects of the energy drink. “They call it an energy drink so that it sounds like healthy fuel, but the reality is very different,” physician and university professor Julio César Hernández Perera explained in the report. “That word is nothing more than a marketing hook,” he denounced. “The energy they promise is not nutritional, but rather a dangerous artificial stimulation, a chemical jolt caused by massive doses of caffeine and an excess of sugar that punishes the cardiovascular system as if it were a violent acceleration.”

When the mixture is combined with alcohol, “the danger doubles, because it masks alcohol intoxication and leads young people into a state of false wakefulness”

When the mixture is combined with alcohol, he continued, “as happens with the famous Shaka Mixer, the danger doubles, because it masks alcohol intoxication and leads young people into a state of false wakefulness that can end in the emergency room.”

The media in Sancti Spíritus have also reported the story of five young people, between 18 and 22 years old, who ended up in that situation and were treated for intoxication at the Camilo Cienfuegos Provincial Hospital. One of them arrived unconscious and had to be admitted to the intensive care unit.

Yaneisy Valdés Gutiérrez, a toxicology specialist, explained this to a reporter from Radio Sancti Spíritus, who added: “This video aims to alert not only those adolescents and young people but also their parents, so they know what is happening.” The doctor said that the five patients came from the same group of friends, and four of them presented “mild symptoms” such as “sweating, irritability, nervousness, severe headache, and weakness.”

The young people, Valdés reported, described effects such as “I feel very bad” or “I feel like I’m going to die,” but they were treated “appropriately” and recovered without complications. The friend who arrived “in a coma” did require hospitalization, as well as “mechanical ventilation to save her life.” The young woman had consumed two cans of Shaka, according to the doctor’s account based on the girl’s own testimony once she regained consciousness.

She told the specialists that after a first can, “sealed” and opened by herself, her behavior began to change, and her friends even told her that “she wasn’t herself.” After drinking the second can, “she doesn’t remember what happened.”

What is happening with Shaka in Cuba is reminiscent of what happened in the United States with Four Loko

Another young man, the same report indicated, in an “altered state” resulting not only from drinking Shaka but also from mixing it with other alcoholic beverages, broke a glass door at the hospital. “We are talking about an intoxication that has presented moderate to severe symptoms in some of these cases,” the doctor insisted, recalling the composition of the concoction. The pleasant flavors in which the product is offered, such as strawberry, coconut, apple, or pineapple, Valdés said, “mask” the alcohol and are therefore “a motivation to continue consuming it.” Shaka, she added, causes dependence; “it is addictive.”

What is happening with Shaka in Cuba is reminiscent of what happened in the United States with Four Loko. Introduced in 2005, the original formulation of this beverage contained malt alcohol (12% by volume), caffeine, taurine, and guarana. With high doses of sugar and flavorings and bright colors, it became a phenomenon among young people and came to be known as “liquid cocaine.”

Alcohol intoxication and other problems associated with its consumption among students first led certain educational institutions to prohibit its consumption and then prompted U.S. authorities to take action. Specifically, they warned that caffeine caused people who drank Four Loko to feel awake without realizing that they were actually affected by the alcohol, just as happens with Shaka.

In 2010, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. food and drug agency, sent letters to four beverage manufacturers—including Phusion Projects, the owner of Four Loko—saying that caffeine added directly to alcohol was an “unsafe food additive” and threatening to remove the products from the market. It never carried out that action because Four Loko removed caffeine, taurine, and guarana from its formulation, and it continues to be sold that way today.

“So many things are prohibited in Cuba, yet they don’t prohibit Shaka as they do in other civilized societies”

Of course, there is no similar regulation on the Island, which is why Venerable Capital has been able to enter that market. “So many things are prohibited in Cuba, yet they don’t prohibit Shaka as they do in other civilized societies,” a doctor tells 14ymedio. “It seems that our country is the captive market of a bunch of profiteers.”

On paper, a Spanish company can manufacture products that are prohibited in the country and export them. To do so, it has to apply to the Ministry of Health, a procedure that can be completed online. This means that at least this agency has all the details about the manufacture of Shaka in Spain.

According to its own website, Venerable Capital, which is primarily dedicated to marketing alcohol and tobacco—although it also sells non-perishable foods such as canned goods, pasta, and oil—exports to Latin American countries, in addition to Cuba, such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Panama, but mainly to African countries such as Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo. It also claims to have a presence in Dubai, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Tibet.

Its brands—for example, Olé packaged products, Bravo cigarettes, Santa Isabel beer, Bernardo Gálvez brandy, and Friday gin—are not seen in Spanish supermarkets, in any case, at least not on the mainland. Venerable Capital says it sells in Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands, territories with special tax regimes.

It is precisely on these islands and in Africa that the business group itself originated, according to the history recounted on the same corporate website, which dates back to the founding, in 1876 in Oran, Algeria, of Tabacos Jorro by Alicante native Vicente Jorro Tours. The boost provided by the entry into the company of Mallorcan financier and smuggler Juan March, at the beginning of the 20th century, enabled them to expand throughout Algeria and Morocco.

Always linked to tobacco, successive generations of the Jorro family continued expanding the business, until Fernando Jorro Sainz de Rozas promoted the creation of Compañía de Tabacos del Mediterráneo (Comet S.A.), the “embryo” of Venerable Capital. Today, the conglomerate itself states, it “brings together businesses involved in the trade, manufacture, and distribution of tobacco, beverages, food, flooring, and services.”

Shaka was quietly launched in the 2010s, but it did not reach Cuba until last year. There are no available sales figures, but there are indications that the Island has become the beverage’s main market within just a few months. Perhaps the desperation of young Cubans in the face of their lack of prospects has a great deal to do with the phenomenon.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Necessary Death of Castro-Communism

Julio M. Shiling, Miami, 4 September 2026 / Dictator Raúl Castro is ninety-five. Rumors of his impending death—or of his already having died—circulate with the grim inevitability that attends any long-lived tyrant. Whether the reports prove premature or not, the underlying truth remains: the last foundational brother of Cuba’s bloody ruling duo is nearing the end of his biological tenure. That fact is not incidental. It is a political inflection point.

Castro-Communism was never merely another Marxist-Leninist regime. It fused the totalitarian apparatus of the party-state with a sultanist structure of highly centralized, personalistic power. Fidel Castro supplied the charismatic ideology and the revolutionary myth. Raúl supplied the institutional muscle and the dynastic continuity. The death of the older dictator Fidel in 2016 produced a foundational rupture. The surviving brother absorbed the remaining personalist authority and kept the system intact. With Raúl’s own exit, that personalist core is finally exhausted. What remains is the apparatus itself—still operational, still predatory, still staffed at its highest levels by the family and its retainers.

The evidence of sultanism is not subtle. Alejandro Castro Espín, Raúl’s son, long known as el tuerto, has headed the counterintelligence apparatus. Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson called el cangrejo, has directed the grandfather’s personal security and affairs. Cousins and other relatives occupy commanding positions across the military, the security services, and the economic fiefdoms that constitute the regime’s kleptocratic backbone. This is not the impersonal bureaucracy of classical continue reading

Leninism. It is a family enterprise wrapped in Marxist- Leninist language and enforced by a totalitarian security state. The nomenclature “Castro- Communism” is therefore precise: it names both the ideology and the dynastic mechanism that has sustained it for sixty-seven years.

The death of any tyrant is cause for celebration. The moral ledger is unambiguous. Fidel and Raúl Castro presided over a system that murdered, imprisoned, exiled hundreds of thousands of Cubans and basically, destroyed a country. The Castro dictatorship exported violence and subversion across Latin America, Africa, and beyond. It treated American citizens and others as disposable instruments of geopolitical theater. That they escaped formal justice is a tragedy measured in unmarked graves, broken families, and decades of silenced testimony. Their physical disappearance does not erase the crimes. It merely removes the last living founders from the stage.

Yet the system they built outlives them. Castro-Communism is not a personality cult that collapses with its cult figures. It is a structured order of party control, military dominance, economic monopoly, and systematic repression. The death of Raúl Castro will accelerate the disintegration of the personalist cement that held the structure together, but it will not automatically dissolve the structure. Those who continue to staff and benefit from it—party officials, generals, security chiefs, and the extended family network—have every incentive to preserve the arrangements that guarantee their power and their plunder. Continuity is their project.

Justice, therefore, requires more than the natural death of a cruel old man. It requires the deliberate death of the system. Cuba must be de-Castro-Communized. The communist- kleptocratic monstrosity that has ruled the island for nearly seven decades must be comprehensively dismantled. That project is not vengeance. It is the necessary precursor to any genuine democratic opening. An ambitious process of transitional justice must examine the full record: the political prisons, the extrajudicial killings, the forced exile of an entire generation, the economic sabotage of the nation, and the international crimes committed in the name of “internationalism.” The bloody legacy of the Castro brothers must be documented, publicized, and adjudicated so that it cannot be sanitized by successors who will otherwise claim reform while retaining the essential levers of control.

The alternative is familiar and depressing. A managed succession, cosmetic liberalization, selective repression, and the continued extraction of wealth by the same networks under new labels. History offers too many examples of totalitarian regimes that outlived their founders only to reproduce the same pathologies under different faces. Castro-Communism has already demonstrated its capacity for adaptation without surrender of power. Only the systematic dismantling of its institutions, the exposure of its crimes, and the removal from authority of those who sustained it can prevent that outcome.

Raúl Castro’s death, when it comes, will be a contribution to the regime’s disintegration. It will not be the victory itself. Victory and true liberation will arrive only with the death of Castro- Communism in its entirety—the ideology, the security apparatus, the dynastic privileges, and the culture of impunity that has defined Cuban public life since 1959. Until that larger death is achieved, the Cuban people remain subject to a system designed to outlast any single man, however long he lived and however many he destroyed.

The Cuban Foreign Minister Calls Sanctions Against a Grandson of Raúl Castro and Banco Exterior a “Cruel and Ruthless Aggression”

“The U.S. Secretary of State has been lying about Cuba again for two consecutive days. It’s a habit he cannot shake,” Rodríguez says.

Banco Exterior de Cuba has been included on the list of entities sanctioned by the U.S. since yesterday. / Prensa Libre>

EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, September 4, 2026 / Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused the U.S. Government on Thursday of “cruel and ruthless aggression” against the people of the Island and of imposing measures intended to trigger “a humanitarian crisis.”

The Cuban foreign minister was reacting to the new sanctions announced by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio against Fidel Ernesto Castro Calis, grandson of former Cuban President Raúl Castro, the state-owned financial institution Banco Exterior de Cuba, and several energy companies.

Rodríguez said on social media that “the U.S. Secretary of State has been lying about Cuba again for two consecutive days. It’s a habit he cannot shake.”

“It is his way, and that of his Government, of trying to justify a cruel and ruthless aggression against the Cuban people that admits no political or moral excuse,” the head of Cuba’s diplomacy maintained.

He also stressed that “collective punishment is a crime” and that it is also “a crime to cause suffering to an entire population through measures coldly calculated to trigger a humanitarian crisis.”

“Enough of the abuse. Put an end to the blockade once and for all and allow Cuba to live in peace, through its own efforts and with the united support of its noble and brave people,” the foreign minister demanded.

Rubio said in a statement that the new designations imposed on Cuba this Thursday “reflect President Trump’s unwavering vision of a free Cuba.”

In recent months, Washington has imposed sanctions on Cuban state entities and officials, including the country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, as well as members of the Castro family, Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) Álvaro López Miera, and deputy ministers of that portfolio.

On May 1, President Trump issued an Executive Order threatening sanctions against any person or entity that provides financial, material, or technological support to the Cuban Government or operates in key sectors of the Island, such as energy, defense, finance, and mining.

It also includes a ban on entry into the United States for foreign nationals who have had or currently have relations with Cuban government entities.

It also includes a ban on entry into U.S. territory for foreign nationals who have maintained or currently maintain relationships with Cuban government entities, are involved in human rights violations, or are involved in acts of corruption.

Since then, batches of sanctions announced by the U.S. have followed every two weeks, beginning with the FAR’s business conglomerate, Gaesa, and its president, Ania Guillermina Lastres.

It later added Communications Minister Mayra Arevich and Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy, the ministries of Tourism and Construction, and mining companies such as Moa Nickel S.A., Geominera S.A., Cubapetróleo, and the José Martí Steelworks (Antillana de Acero), among other officials and entities.

Cuba has been experiencing a deep energy crisis since mid-2024, worsened since January by the U.S. oil pressure campaign, with blackouts lasting more than 20 hours in Havana and up to 72 consecutive hours in the rest of the country, which has aggravated the economic crisis the Island has endured for six years.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Another Electric Utility Lineman Dies While Performing Maintenance Work in Havana

In 2025, 38 workers died in Cuba, and the electricity sector, along with construction, suffered the most workplace accidents

UNE linemen usually work with few safety resources / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, September 4, 2026 / Cuba’s Electric Utility (Unión Eléctrica) reported this Thursday the death, that same morning, of Edisvey Rolando Pérez Rodríguez, a 32-year-old lineman who was part of the brigade that had come from Sancti Spíritus to carry out maintenance work in Havana.

The state-owned company has not given further details about the cause of death, although it has made clear that he suffered a workplace accident. According to one of the colleagues who sent condolences, the young man – a native of La Sierpe – was doing maintenance work in Guanabacoa.

“My condolences to the family. We regret the loss of this young man. It is a profound sorrow for all of us who work in the sector and, above all, for those of us who had the opportunity to work with him. He was an excellent colleague and a devoted, committed worker,” read one of the many messages that employees of the Sancti Spíritus electric company left following the announcement of his death.

“I hope they empathize and decide not to send them to another province just to meet those needs, when they are needed here too”

Among the comments, some lamented the harsh working conditions endured by linemen, a job they described as exhausting and undervalued. “I hope they empathize and decide not to send them to another province just to meet those needs, when they are needed here too,” one user noted. “Perhaps the same thing would have happened to him here, but he would have been close to his family.”

UNE has been quick this time in reporting the death, a response diametrically different from that of last June, when 39-year-old Osmani Rosales Núñez, a worker for the Cárdenas Electric Company, lost his life. The lineman received a high-voltage electric shock while carrying out repair work in that city in Matanzas, but the state-owned company remained silent about the incident, on which only Tecnotur – the Ministry’s Technology, Solutions and Tourism Equipment Company – commented, since the deceased’s father worked there.

At the time, an electrical worker who contacted the media El Toque, denounced the conditions under which his work was carried out. “They are terrible and dangerous, lacking all safety and protection resources,” he stated, adding: “The harnesses and safety belts for working at height are in terrible condition and there are barely any. Sometimes continue reading

one is available for the whole brigade, when it should be personal equipment.”

The worker explained that there were also no uniforms, boots, or helmets, and, worst of all, there are barely any dielectric gloves for working with live current. “If a cable falls, we have to think about where to remove one that’s out of use to repair it with; if a transformer, or ‘lechera’ (milk can) as it’s called on the street, burns out, we have to think about where to take a less-used one from to provide service to the population, and it’s all like that because the warehouses are bare, grim,” he denounced.

In September 2025, Cleivi Pujada Castro lost his life while carrying out repair work on a circuit at the Playa Baracoa substation in Bauta, Artemisa province. The UNE worker died after coming into contact with a high-voltage line, according to the account of a colleague who reported what happened.

“The harnesses and safety belts for working at height are in terrible condition and there are barely any. Sometimes one is available for the whole brigade, when it should be personal equipment.”

A different fate, days earlier, befell Osmani Hernández Madroza, 35, who suffered burns while working on a fault in San Miguel del Padrón, repairing a conductor. The lineman had both arms amputated as a result of the burns. In March 2024, Leonel Carroso Machín, a lineman for the Havana Electric Company, died after falling from a pole in the municipality of Boyeros.

Workplace accident statistics in Cuba confirm that this is, after construction, one of the sectors with the most accidents and fatalities. In 2025, there were 664 incidents in which 38 workers died and 701 were injured. The electricity sector accounted for five deaths, half as many as construction and the same number as gas and water supply.

Although there were more deaths in 2024 – 52 nationwide and 7 in the electricity sector – the decrease could be explained not only by the decline in the general population, but specifically by the loss of UNE workers. Between 2021 and 2023 alone, the company lost 15,000 workers by its own account, a situation that has worsened in recent years. The workforce numbers around 40,000 workers, but the Ministry of Energy and Mines has repeatedly stated that there is a labor shortage and that increasingly less-qualified personnel are facing complex tasks due to the lack of replacement and qualified staff.

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They Doubled the Prices of Cuban Cigars and Ruined the Cuban Business

A ‘Financial Times’ investigation blames Chinese national Chen Zhi, a partner of Cuba’s and now imprisoned in his own country, for having erred in his business strategy

Casa del Habano in the luxurious Harrods department store, in central London.. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, September 4, 2026 / “It’s quite a surprising situation, how the Cubans have given away the tobacco industry,” says Laurence Davis, owner of the Sautter Cigars shop in London, with irony. That blunt statement closes an investigative report published this Thursday by the prestigious British newspaper Financial Times, which traces the recent history of Habanos S.A. and how the strategy of turning Cuban cigars into an ultra-luxury item has destroyed the brand.

“They ruined the image of the average Cuban cigar smoker, who used to smoke a Cohiba Robusto for 40 pounds, by raising it to 100,” the businessman adds, noting that the loss of customers is not offset by the profits the company may have made in recent years.

The greatest responsibility, according to those interviewed for the report, falls on the Chinese-Cambodian billionaire – now detained – Chen Zhi, leader of the Prince Group conglomerate. In April 2020, the half of Habanos S.A. that belonged to Imperial Tobacco – the other half is controlled by the state-owned Cubatabaco – was sold to a Hong Kong consortium in which Chen controlled almost a third of the shares. The remaining quarter, the FT now reveals, belonged to Chinese energy magnate Zhang Hongwei. Chen Zhi’s obsession with breaking into London’s elite – which did not accept a Chinese millionaire the way it would a millionaire from any other Western country – led him to use the Cuban brand as continue reading

a status symbol.

Chen Zhi’s obsession with breaking into London’s elite – which did not accept a Chinese millionaire the way it would a millionaire from any other Western country – led him to use the Cuban brand as a status symbol

Before the Chinese businessman arrived at Habanos, the brand reported stable annual revenues of five hundred million dollars, the FT notes. Afterward, by 2022, the money
began to surge, reaching 827 million in 2024. The newspaper cites another surprising figure: the brand doubled its prices in 2023 and raised them more moderately afterward – a Cohiba Behike 52 that sold for 55 euros in January 2022 reached 230 euros by January 2026.

To arrive at that point, the FT reconstructs Chen’s biography. He first arrived in Havana in 2022, accompanying the entourage of the prime minister of Cambodia, the country where he had become a naturalized citizen. There he had built good relationships, including with relatives of the government elite, and made his fortune, which, according to his lawyers, came from good management of real estate businesses. For the United States, however, he is “involved in illicit activities.”

Be that as it may, Chen moved to the United Kingdom, but the luxurious buildings and offices he bought did nothing to impress the British. But Chen – the FT says – “had a secret weapon in his seduction campaign: Cuban cigars.” The report contains several anecdotes that illustrate this, such as a visit by journalists to one of the businessman’s warehouses, where they found abundant boxes of Cuban cigars in the hallway.

Sandy Zhou, sent to London as Chen’s emissary and identified by the United States as a collaborator in the Prince Group’s “corrupt and criminal activities,” told Laurence Davis that the businessman wanted to create a smokers’ club in the United Kingdom with a membership fee of 100,000 pounds, although this never materialized and, according to his spokespeople, never went beyond a comment, with no business plan. “I think he saw it as a great opportunity. All those rich and famous businessmen from around the world were going to be here, they would go to his club and sit at his table,” Davis says.

Charlie Minato, co-founder of the specialized website Halfwheel, based in the United States, also speaks about the economic leap in Cuban cigar prices, citing the annual charity auction gala as an example. “There was a time when these humidors sold for between 150,000 and 200,000 dollars. But then Middle Eastern buyers appeared and prices skyrocketed: 400,000 and 500,000 dollars,” he recalls. Later would come the record of 2.6 million dollars for a single box of 550 cigars.

By that point, Chen had already turned the Cuban cigar into a highly coveted product among the Chinese. Mitchell Orchant, founder of the British tobacconist chain C.Gars, recalls that they then began to be sold as luxury gifts. “They would come and take 100 boxes at once.” Although he spoke to them about the merits of the tobacco, the customers would respond, “No, I smoke other brands, but this one is perfect for gift-giving.”

“They would come and take 100 boxes at once.” Although he spoke to them about the merits of the tobacco, the customers would respond, “No, I smoke other brands, but this one is perfect for gift-giving.”

In April 2022 – the text continues – Habanos decreed that global prices would be tied to those in Hong Kong, among the most expensive in the world due to its high taxes. “Cuba hopes to eliminate this gray market and reposition Cohiba and Trinidad as super-luxury brands, accessible only to those with very high purchasing power,” a retailer told his customers at the time.

London businessmen note that it was a boom time, despite initial fears over the price hikes. Consumers who already sought status now valued the brand even more. Davis notes that one Chinese customer spent 120,000 pounds in a single purchase – a sales volume that for him would normally represent “an extraordinary two weeks.” Habanos’ revenue rose 45% between 2021 and 2024, and everything seemed to be going well. But the empire began to crumble, first with the sanctions imposed on Chen – by the United Kingdom and the United States in October 2025 and by the EU in July of this year, which has contributed to the suspension of the Swedish license of Elite Trading Scandinavia AB, which distributed the product – and the accusations against him. A New York court charged the businessman with having turned the Prince Group into “one of the largest transnational criminal organizations in Asia” and found that his workers in Cambodia were victims of trafficking.

On January 6, 2026, Chen was extradited from Cambodia to China, where, according to court documents, not even his lawyers have been able to contact him, the FT notes, adding that a judge in the British Virgin Islands appointed provisional liquidators for 30 companies linked to Chen and the Prince Group, among them Simply Advanced, through which he controlled nearly a third of Habanos’ shares. The tobacco business is not mentioned in any case against Chen, but since the liquidators are seeking a new owner for the company, it is believed that the magnate will soon be out of the consortium.

Even so, the damage to the brand is already a fact. “Before [2020], I smoked Cuban cigars 95% of the time. Now I smoke Cuban cigars 40% of the time, if I can even get them. We have people who smoke two or three cigars a day. Their bill has gone from 55-60 pounds to 120-130 pounds. What they’ve done is cut back their consumption and start smoking Nicaraguan cigars, and now I think there’s no turning back,” Davis says.

Today, the world’s leading exporter is the Dominican Republic, with 8.4 billion units a year compared to 70 million Cuban cigars

The businessman is referring to new brands that have emerged on the continent through the work of Cuban exiles. Those interviewed cannot stop emphasizing the distinctive qualities of Cuban tobacco. “It’s the most incredible symbol of capitalism produced in one of the last bastions of communism. It’s one of those strange things, right? They make the best cigars in the world,” says Orchant. “In most cases, I can tell within 90 seconds whether a cigar is Cuban or not. Often I can do it even before lighting it. There’s something different about that tobacco; it has a particular sweetness,” Minato notes, estimating that tens of thousands of people smoke a Cuban cigar in the United States every week “at the very least,” even though their sale is not legal there.

The industry, however, has remained frozen in time. “There’s been no investment; they still plant by hand,” Davis says. There are also the consequences of the fuel blockade. “This isn’t the first time we’ve had supply shortages, but this time it’s a bit more complicated. The cigars are still being made in the factories every day, the workers are bused to the factories… the problem lies in exporting the product,” Orchant notes.

Today, the world’s leading exporter is the Dominican Republic, with 8.4 billion units a year compared to 70 million Cuban cigars. My Father Cigars has plants in Honduras and Nicaragua; the company was founded by the descendants of a Cuban cigar roller – José Pepín García – who emigrated to Miami in 2003. According to Davis, its capacity is 85 million cigars a year.

Translated by GH.

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The US Deported a Cuban Intelligence Agent in Exile From Miami

Fernando Armando Valdés Pérez, now designated as a spy, was very close to Luis Posada Carriles.

Fernando Armando Valdés Pérez was deported on August 7. / Telemundo

EFE/14ymedio, Miami, September 3, 2026 – The United States deported Fernando Armando Valdés Pérez to Cuba, identified by the authorities as a Cuban intelligence agent tasked with infiltrating communities of exiles and dissidents in the United States and Latin America since the mid-1990s.

Valdés Pérez, 61 years old, was arrested on July 10 at the Miami International Airport during a migration control operation, according to a statement this Wednesday from the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE).

According to the investigation, Valdés, who is also a Guatemalan citizen, was a Cuban intelligence agent whose mission was to infiltrate communities of Cuban exiles and dissidents and report on his activities, both in the United States and other countries in Latin America.

Authorities claim that Valdés gained the trust of the late anti-Castro dissident Luis Posada Carriles and maintained close proximity to other well-known Cuban and Cuban-American figures in southern Florida until his arrest.

He maintained close proximity to other well-known Cuban and Cuban-American figures in southern Florida until his arrest

According to the Miami Herald, the proximity of Posada Carriles and Valdés was so great that he was quoted by the newspaper when the first died. “I spoke with him yesterday and felt he was strong,” Valdés declared to the media. Valdés also organized the last birthday party of the opponent.

Investigators have determined that Valdés deliberately hid his ties to the Cuban regime when he applied for and obtained legal permanent residence in the US, thereby knowingly continue reading

deceiving US immigration officials, according to authorities.

“Individuals who hide their links with foreign intelligence services and take advantage of our immigration system pose a serious threat to the integrity of that system and to our national security”, the director of ICE’s Miami Enforcement and Clearance Operations (ERO) office, Matthew Elliston, said in a statement.

After his arrest, which also involved the FBI and the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Valdés was prosecuted and placed in deportation procedures before being deported from the United States on August 7.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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For the First Time in Decades, Foreign Companies Can Now Hire Their Own Staff Without State Mediation

Individuals will be allowed to work as tour guides, on the condition that they “promote the ethical and moral values of Cuban society.”

Resolution 56 of the Ministry of Labor specifies that current employees may not begin receiving income lower than what they currently earn. / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Havana, September 3, 2026 – Foreign and mixed-ownership companies will no longer be required to rely on the Cuban State as an intermediary to hire their workers. The change, announced in June, was formalized this Thursday in Decree-Law 128, published in Official Gazette No. 73.

The publication of the new regulations was not without oversights. In the Official Gazette’s own table of contents, Decree-Law 128 is described as amending “Law 18,” when it is actually Law 118, and the word “Inverción Extranjera” [Foreign Investment] is even misspelled. Not a particularly polished entry for a regulatory package with which the Government intends to provide investors with greater security.

Beyond these typos, the Decree-Law introduces a substantial change to the labor regulation governing foreign investment: Cubans and permanent foreign residents working for mixed companies, wholly foreign-owned companies or international economic association contracts may be recruited directly by these entities. The option of using a State employment agency remains, but it is no longer mandatory.

The new legislation is, however, more cautious: it does not eliminate employment agencies, but instead makes their use optional

Until now, the foreign company paid for labor to a Cuban entity that was legally the worker’s employer and managed the hiring process. The system, which had drawn much criticism over the years, also prevented business owners from establishing a direct employment relationship with their employees.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero had already announced the change before the National Assembly in June. “A foreign company can freely hire its workers without a third party intervening,” he said at continue reading

the time, while presenting reforms that the Government insists are compatible with the “socialist project.”

The new legislation is, however, more cautious: it does not eliminate employment agencies, but instead makes their use optional. Companies that currently rely on these State structures and decide to begin hiring directly will have a transition period of up to 60 days to transfer the documentation and procedures related to their workforce. Resolution 56 of the Ministry of Labor also specifies that current employees may not begin receiving income lower than what they currently earn.

The reform also allows foreign companies to offer their workers bonuses in foreign currency, provided they generate those resources. Management bodies may also decide how to use their profits, including creating incentive funds, a decision that previously required administrative authorization.

Legal entities that already have the authority to import or export may trade in all goods that do not expressly appear on the list of prohibited or restricted products

Another significant change concerns access to the international financial system. Mixed companies and domestic investors participating in economic association contracts may open accounts at foreign banks without first obtaining permission from the Central Bank of Cuba. Going forward, it will be sufficient to notify the institution, which must be informed within seven days.

This does not, however, constitute a general authorization for any Cuban private company to freely maintain accounts abroad, but rather a facility limited to certain forms of foreign investment.

The Official Gazette also relaxes foreign trade operations. Legal entities that already have the authority to import or export may trade in all goods that do not expressly appear on the list of prohibited or restricted products.

Resolution 68 allows individuals to operate travel agencies, including wholesale, retail and online agencies. They may market packages, accommodations, transportation, excursions and other services, although they will need a license from the Ministry of Tourism valid for three years.

Resolution 69 likewise opens land-based tourist transportation and vehicle rentals to private operators, a business traditionally monopolized by companies linked to the State. New operators will have to meet requirements concerning insurance, maintenance, technical inspections and other conditions in order to obtain their licenses.

Meanwhile, Resolution 70 creates the position of the “independent tour guide,” who may work without an employment relationship with a tourism agency. The independence has limits: applicants must be trained and certified by Formatur, be registered in the National Directory of Tour Guides and possess an official credential.

Oniel Díaz, co-founder of the consulting firm Auge, welcomed the new regulations enthusiastically and described them as “very important changes” in two key areas, foreign investment and tourism

Among the obligations imposed on these professionals, the regulation is not limited to technical matters. It requires them to “promote the ethical and moral values of Cuban society,” remain up to date on the country’s political and social affairs and act against conduct that, according to the authorities, harms the “interests of the country, society, the people or its institutions.”

After the measures were announced in June, several economists expressed skepticism and warned that the reforms’ scope would depend on their practical implementation and on the degree of discretionary power retained by the authorities.

The need to attract capital and foreign currency lies behind much of the new framework. The Cuban consulting firm Auge itself noted in July that the reforms were driven less by an ideological shift than by the realization that the previous model could no longer sustain the country’s economic needs.

Oniel Díaz, co-founder of the consulting firm Auge, welcomed the new regulations enthusiastically and described them as “very important changes” in two key areas, foreign investment and tourism. In his view, the update “constitutes progress in simplifying procedures and opening up to new economic actors,” within the official strategy of “improving the management model.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Delta Airlines’ Suspension of Flights to Cuba, a Consequence of the Collapse of Tourism

32,272 international travelers arrived in July, 92% fewer than the 386,000 recorded in the same month of 2018

Plaza Vieja, once always full of tourists, empty on a day this past August.
. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, September 1, 2026 / The number of international travelers who arrived in Cuba this July rose compared with the ruinous previous three months, though this has not prevented the overall balance from remaining catastrophic. Only 32,272 tourists visited the island that month, compared with 28,100 in June. When compared with data from previous years, the well-known debacle becomes even more apparent. This figure is 71% lower than in the same month last year – with 112,000 – and 92% lower than the 386,000 recorded in July 2018, which was the best year on record for the sector.

The fall of Nicolás Maduro in January of this year – detained in a US operation – opened the floodgates for a chain of sanctions from Washington that has caused a radical reduction in tourism figures, although the downward trend was already evident in 2025. Despite this, CubaChequea – the data verification unit of Árbol Invertido – published an investigation this Monday showing that 62% of the investment promoted in the portfolio of opportunities published by the Cuban regime in November 2025 was earmarked for tourism.

The sector accounted for some 10.669 billion dollars in proposals for foreign investors, who were more interested in that segment than in any other. Meanwhile, barely 7% were directed toward food production, the sector most important to the population.

“There are tourism projects seeking around one billion dollars. Meanwhile, 89.2% of food production projects do not exceed 10 million dollars”

“There are tourism projects seeking around one billion dollars. Meanwhile, 89.2% of food production projects do not exceed 10 million dollars,” said Francis Sánchez, director of Árbol Invertido and author of the report, in a video published with the details of the investigation. In his view, this reveals the regime’s lack of interest in what it identifies as a priority, while also clearly reflecting where foreigners would expect to obtain greater returns.

Less than a year has passed, but the picture has changed radically. At this point, the sector is paralyzed by the withdrawal of the airlines – a consequence of the fuel shortage – and of the hotel companies that managed most of the Cuban business.

As in previous months, Cuban Americans are the group best withstanding the decline. So far this year, this group has fallen the least continue reading

compared with the previous year, with 88,525 arrivals – compared with 140,546 in the first seven months of 2025. The drop is enormous, at 37%, but compared with other countries it is the smallest loss recorded. Something similar is happening with US travelers: although the figure has been cut by more than half, it still reaches 37,351, compared with more than 77,000 in July of last year. Air connectivity with the US is among the most resilient, which explains these figures.

However, this Monday Delta Airlines – which announced in June the cancellation of its direct route between Havana and Atlanta and cut its operations from Miami by 50% – requested an extension of its permit to reduce flights. In a filing to the US Department of Transportation, the airline is asking to keep unused its permit to operate to Havana during the winter season, which runs from October 25, 2026 to March 27, 2027. The company claims that “market conditions did not improve sufficiently” to operate at full capacity.

Although Spain continues to appear on the list of leading source countries for tourists, it has suffered a major decline of nearly 65%

On the opposite end is Canada, which still leads in absolute visitor volume, with 127,645 arrivals, down 70% compared with 2025 levels. Most Canadian tourists, moreover, were received in January and early February, before all the North American country’s airlines canceled their routes to the island. In January 2026 alone, nearly 100,000 Canadians arrived in Cuba, while a month later that figure fell to 24,559. Since then, travelers from that country have arrived only in trickles.

Russia, although it has never reached the same outbound levels as Canada, was also one of the great hopes for the Cuban market, which in 2024 aimed to attract 200,000 tourists from that country. Now, a 70.4% drop is being reported, as only 21,374 Russians have vacationed on the island so far this year, of which 20,668 correspond to the first two months, before – likewise – all the Eurasian nation’s airlines canceled their connections with the country.

As for Europeans, the pattern that has been in place for years continues to repeat itself, which, in the view of the Cuban regime, is due to the visa restrictions imposed on EU citizens – beneficiaries of the ESTA visa waiver program – who have traveled to Cuba. Notable within this group is the case of Spain which, although it continues to appear on the list of leading source countries for tourists, has suffered a major decline – of nearly 65% – despite the fact that its airlines have held out the longest despite the situation.

Air Europa is one of the only connections between the continent and the island, and it plans to continue on that path, with up to five or six weekly flights in December and a daily frequency starting April 1, 2027. Spain is, however, home to the second-largest Cuban community abroad, after the US.

As an anecdotal data point, there is also the figure for Chinese travelers to Cuba. It is the country losing the least market share, although the numbers remain minimal. With 9,209 travelers so far this year – compared with 14,439 in July 2025 – it is “only” down 36.2%.

Translated by GH

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Another Grandson of Raúl Castro and the Banco Exterior de Cuba Are Sanctioned by the United States

Two state entities linked to nickel and cobalt and two others associated with Cupet are also blacklisted.

Fidel Ernesto Castro Calis, in an image posted on social media in 2017. / Facebook. / Facebook

14ymedio, Madrid, September 3, 2026 – The U.S. State Department issued new sanctions against the Cuban regime this Thursday, pursuant to the order issued by President Donald Trump last May. From now on, Banco Exterior de Cuba and another grandson of Raúl Castro, Fidel Ernesto Castro Calis, are also on the blacklist. His brother Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis and their father, Alejandro Castro Espín, were already sanctioned in June.

This grandson of Raúl Castro, the United States indicates, is being designated precisely “for being an adult family member of Alejandro Castro Espín.”

In addition, the United States is also sanctioning several state-owned companies, two related to the nickel and cobalt mining business — Empresa de Servicios Comandante René Ramos Latour (Nicarotec) and Empresa Importadora y Abastecedora del Níquel (Cexni) — and two associated with Unión Cuba Petróleo (Cupet), which has also been on the blacklist for months: Empresa Importadora de Abastecimiento para el Petróleo (Abapet) and Comercial Cupet S.A.

These entities, it continues, “exploit Cuba’s natural resources or energy reserves for the benefit of the regime”

“I am designating five entities and one individual whose activities support the regime’s financial services, metals, mining, and energy sectors, and who are part of networks that advance the regime’s threats to U.S. national security,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio says in the official continue reading

statement. These entities, he continues, “exploit Cuba’s natural resources or energy reserves for the benefit of the regime.”

As with the other sanctions imposed since May under Executive Order 14404 of May 1, the list entails not only the blocking of the sanctioned parties’ assets in U.S. territory or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, but also prohibits any transactions with these entities by U.S. persons or by people who reside in or travel through the United States. The exception remains that they have a license from the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

“The Cuban communist regime continues to pose a profound and multifaceted threat to the national security of the United States and the stability of our hemisphere,” Rubio argues in the statement, using the same justification as on previous occasions. “While the Cuban people suffer, the Castro family and their cronies in Cuba’s repressive Ministry of the Interior perpetuate their absolute control over the island’s economy, hoarding resources for the benefit of a small group of regime elites.”

The new sanctions, he concludes, “reflect President Trump’s unwavering vision of a free Cuba, one in which the regime’s illicit financial networks, repressive apparatuses, and entrenched power structures from the Castro era are dismantled, and in which the Cuban people, not their oppressors, inherit the nation’s future.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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A Cuban Sandwich Shop in Belfast, Ireland, is a Victim of the Sanctions Against the Havana Regime

Deliveroo had gone two months without paying the restaurant due to bank measures stemming from the embargo. Pressure on social media has resolved a problem that was affecting 30% of the Cuban Sandwich Factory’s revenue.

Cuban Carlos Argüelles has lived in Northern Ireland since 1998. / Facebook/ Cuban Sandwich Factory

14ymedio, Madrid, September 3, 2026 / Carlos Argüelles can finally breathe easy. This Cuban, proprietor of the Cuban Sandwich Factory restaurant in downtown Belfast, has endured a harrowing few days after making a difficult yet necessary decision: to suspend home deliveries, which accounted for up to 30% of his company’s revenue. Deliveroo, the British platform responsible for the delivery, had barely paid him for two months due to US sanctions, but the pressure of the last few hours has secured him a victory.

“They paid us! Muchísimas gracias to the wonderful people of Belfast for their solidarity. Thank you to the journalists who listened to our story. Thank you to Deliveroo for putting pressure on Citibank. It’s amazing how quickly things can be resolved thanks to the power of the people, but it’s unbelievable that a sandwich shop in Belfast could be affected by Trump’s sanctions,” he posted on social media on Wednesday, just hours after the Northern Irish press published his story.

Argüelles has lived in Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) for 28 years, half of them in the capital, where his business was thriving until this past June. Since that month, Deliveroo stopped making payments after the bank increased its measures against individuals and companies linked to Cuba. The accumulated debt had already reached more than 7,000 pounds – about $9,500 – and threatened the company’s finances.

Argüelles has been living in Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) for 28 years, half of them in the capital, where his business was thriving until this June.

“Trump is trying to make things difficult for anyone or anything related to Cuba, even a small sandwich shop in Belfast,” the businessman denounced, “sad and angry,” after making the decision to suspend home delivery.

“It’s a terrible situation, as it’s also affecting my orders. I’ve had to cancel some of them with my suppliers. Meat, bread… everything will be affected. It’s not a good situation,” he told the Northern Irish press. In addition, the non-payments were having consequences for the staff, whose wages—and actual work—depend heavily on these orders and their delivery.

“This isn’t Deliveroo’s fault, but the fault of the US bank that makes the payments. It seems there’s an automatic block as soon as the word ‘Cuba’ appears,” he explained in several interviews.

The food delivery company uses the Stripe payment processor, which, like other US financial institutions, employs a filtering system for individuals of Cuban nationality or companies where the word “Cuba” appears, in order to avoid sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The measure is primarily preventative and doesn’t always result in the denial of the transaction, but rather in increased scrutiny that delays delivery. This “over-compliance” can be fatal for businesses like that of Argüelles.

“For almost two months we have not received regular payments from Deliveroo UK. (…) With no guarantee of any payment date or that we will actually be paid, it is unsustainable for us to continue. If we did, it could, in fact, result in the permanent closure of Cuban Sandwich Factory,” the company wrote in a statement on social media this Tuesday. In the statement, the company reminded customers of its phone number, which can still be used to place orders for pickup at the restaurant. “We greatly appreciate all the love and support from the people of Belfast,” it added.

It wasn’t the first time Argüelles had faced such a situation, although the scale hadn’t been this great. During Trump’s first term, there had already been problems with the company. On that occasion, the Deilveroo representative asked him to prove he had residency in the United Kingdom, where he had arrived decades earlier to marry a woman born in nearby County Antrim.

Deilveroo’s representative asked him to prove he had residency in the United Kingdom, where he arrived decades ago to marry a woman born in nearby County Antrim.

What had been resolved that time seemed to be at a standstill this time. Deliveroo wasn’t responding to the Northern Irish press about the situation, although Argüelles said his representative had advised him to be patient and not withdraw. “But I felt I had no other option. Between 20% and 30% of the losses come from them. I spoke with many restaurant owners and they haven’t been affected, so now it’s my fault for being Cuban. I have family members in Cuba affected by the same thing.”

The outcry and support from their customers has worked, and all indications are that the business will continue offering delivery as before, although Argüelles has asked that the solidarity received be extended to his compatriots on the island. “Please keep the people of Cuba in mind, because their struggle against Trump’s actions is much greater and cannot be resolved so easily with the power of social media.”

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Expedia Wins Lawsuit Filed by Two Cuban-Americans for ‘Trafficking’ in Confiscated Properties

According to the jury, the claimants did not provide clear evidence regarding ownership of the land in Cuba.

Mario Echevarria claims that Cayo Coco was his family’s property, but according to the court, he lacks documentary evidence. / geograftour.com

14ymedio, Madrid, September 1, 2026 / A Miami jury on Monday handed another legal victory to the American travel agency Expedia Group. The court concluded that Cuban-Americans who sued the company for exploiting properties confiscated from their relatives by the Cuban regime after 1959 had failed to prove ownership.

The plaintiffs claimed that Expedia had profited by facilitating reservations at five hotels located on land that had belonged to their relatives before the Revolution. The jury determined, however, that they lacked evidence to establish this ownership, and therefore did not even consider one of the company’s main lines of defense: that it had conducted these transactions entirely legally, protected by travel licenses issued during Barack Obama’s presidency.

“These accused used these properties in alliance with their Cuban communist partners,” said Andres Rivero, the plaintiffs’ attorney, as quoted by The New York Times. Expedia’s attorney, David Shank, argued that the case did not revolve around the opinion on the policy toward Cuba, however disagreeable it might be.

Expedia’s lawyer, David Shank, argued that the case did not revolve around the opinion on the policy toward Cuba, however disagreeable it might be.

Expedia’s defense argued that the company did not know who owned the land on which the hotels were located and that, in fact, it ceased operations when it learned that the families who filed the complaint—the Echevarría and Mata families—were claiming ownership. Furthermore, Expedia stopped operating in Cuba when Donald Trump continue reading

reversed Obama’s policy on the matter.

“We are pleased with the jury’s decision, which affirms the position we have maintained the entire time,” said a company spokesperson, thus obtaining a second victory for Expedia based on the Helms-Burton Act. In 2025, Expedia was ordered to pay $29.8 million in damages in a similar case, but a judge overturned the decision months later, finding that it had not been proven that the company was aware of or responsible for the actions of the subsidiary that handled the reservations. That case is currently under appeal.

One of the plaintiffs, 66-year-old Maricela Mata, tried to demonstrate that she was an heir to the land using “discolored” documents that indicated the land on which the San Carlos de Cienfuegos hotel, built in 1928, stood belonged to her grandfather, Antonio. Expedia’s lawyer, however, argued that the papers were a commercial registration and not a property title, so there was doubt as to “who owned the land.”

The other plaintiff, 91-year-old Mario Echevarria—who was seeking $10 million—maintains that his family owned Cayo Coco, but he could not provide documentation. “Whose is it? I have no idea. You decide that,” Expedia’s lawyer told the jury.

The New York Times consulted Paolo Spadoni, an economist at Augusta University in Georgia and an expert on Cuban tourism, who warned of the difficulties in these types of lawsuits. “Expedia’s victory highlights the considerable obstacles that Cuban Americans continue to face when filing claims involving property expropriated decades ago,” he noted. The major problem is precisely in being able to establish “that they possess legally recognized property rights to the property in question.”

John Kavulich, an expert with the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, also told the media outlet that events like this should not discourage people seeking to file claims under the Helms-Burton Act. Despite the fact that the setbacks have been frequent, recent court decisions have offered some heirs hope, including Havana Docks Corporation in its case against four major cruise lines. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cuban company Havana Docks, allowing it to reactivate its claim against Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and MSC for their use between 2016 and 2019 of terminals in the port of Havana, which were confiscated by the Cuban government in 1960.

John Kavulich, an expert with the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, also told the media outlet that incidents like this should not discourage people who aspire to file claims under the Helms-Burton Act.

A month later, the Supreme Court also ruled that Cuban state-owned companies can be sued under the Helms-Burton Act, as it considers that the Act exempts the state from immunity. The decision affected the case of ExxonMobil, which is seeking more than $1 billion, plus interest, for assets confiscated in 1960, including a refinery, oil facilities, and more than 100 service stations.

According to some estimates, certified claims in the US for confiscations amount to at least 6,000 registered and are valued at about $9 billion, the sum of about $1.9 billion original to which an interest of 6% per year must be added.

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All the Equipment, Including the Panels, Is Robbed From the Seismological Station on the Isle of Youth

The head of Cuba’s National Seismological Service calls for the case to be treated as sabotage.

The seismological station on the Isle of Youth was inaugurated in March 2024 / Victoria / ‘Victoria’

14ymedio, Havana, September 2, 2026 – The seismological station on the Isle of Youth is out of service due to a theft. “They left nothing,” Enrique Arango Arias, head of Cuba’s National Seismological Service and technical deputy director of the National Center for Seismological Research (Cenais), reported Tuesday.

“All the station’s equipment was stolen, from solar panels and batteries to the seismological equipment, such as the seismometer and digitizer, among other items,” the official explained on his official Facebook profile.

Arango Arias considers that the incident goes beyond the material loss because of the function the station performed and said that it was not a “simple theft.” He even suggested that the case should be treated as “sabotage against an institution that constitutes an earthquake and tsunami warning system covering Cuba and the Caribbean,” something that is already happening with the theft of dielectric oil from transformers.

The Cuban Penal Code, in Articles 125 and 126, establishes penalties ranging from seven to 30 years in prison, life imprisonment or even the death penalty for the crime of continue reading

sabotage.

The station, which was inaugurated just over two years ago, operates almost autonomously, without permanent personnel, and obtains its energy through solar panels

The station, which was inaugurated just over two years ago, operates almost autonomously, without permanent personnel, and obtains its energy through solar panels, meaning the theft could qualify as sabotage of the national electric system, a crime for which prison sentences of between nine and 20 years have been imposed so far this year. Most of the cases have involved the theft of dielectric oil, which can be used as fuel instead of diesel and as a lubricant, making it valuable on the streets.

The station is part of the National Seismological Service network, which consists of more than 24 stations distributed across 12 provinces and the Isle of Youth. Its equipment makes it possible to record seismic movements and provide information for monitoring earthquakes and possible tsunamis in real time, according to the authorities.

In his report, Arango Arias also warned that the incident on the Isle of Youth is not the only one to have occurred recently. He said that equipment was also stolen from the seismological station in Moa and from the backup center located in Holguín.

Equipment was also stolen from the seismological station in Moa and from the backup center located in Holguín

The specialist asked: “How far is the vandalism going to go? How far will the impunity for these acts that are affecting all of society go?”

In one of the responses, however, the authorities’ lack of action was questioned: “It is complicated to protect these resources when there is no government interest in doing so. Unfortunately, the Government does not have even the slightest perception of seismic risk, the importance of these stations, nor the work involved in their installation, configuration, calibration and commissioning.”

Last July, at least 168 incidents of violence and public insecurity were recorded during the month. Most of the cases involved thefts and assaults with machetes or firearms, mainly targeting people in vehicles, and the theft of power-generation equipment, amid the energy crisis that is worsening by the day in the country, according to the most recent monthly report published by the legal advisory center Cubalex.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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