Translating Cuba – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

A Mother’s Day Without Flowers or Gifts

“This year, the only thing I can buy for the mothers in my family is a bar of bath soap for each of them,” Dianet admits with a mixture of shame and resignation.

Mother’s Day seems to have become more of an exercise in economic survival than a celebration. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, San José de las Lajas (Mayabeque), May 9, 2026 / Gone are the days of making the bed with the best sheets available and placing gifts for Mom on it every second Sunday of May: perfume, a housecoat, new slippers, or a box of chocolates that remained untouched until after the family lunch. In San José de las Lajas, just days before the second Sunday of May, Mother’s Day seems to have become more of an exercise in economic survival than a celebration.

“This is what we have left of the little money my son sent from abroad,” says 74-year-old Georgina, clutching a debit card with barely nine dollars remaining. In front of her, the shelves of the La Época store display the same familiar scene: packages of detergent, bottles of shampoo, napkins, spaghetti, and a few imported soaps with prices that seem out of this world. The retiree scans the shelves again and again as if, by persisting, a miraculous sale might appear. But no. “It’s vanished like smoke, and we’ve barely bought anything, and there’s a holiday coming up that we should be celebrating.”

Inside the store, the air conditioning is only partially working, offering little resistance to the humid heat that seeps in from the street. Leaning against the cash registers, the clerks chat about the power outages, the price of rice, and the latest blackout in Jamaica, the outlying neighborhood where many have built makeshift homes of concrete and asbestos cement. No one mentions Mother’s Day promotions. There are no plastic flowers, no pink ribbons, not even a hastily written sign with a marker saying “Happy Mother’s Day.” Everything feels as cold as a government office.

“All the stores have the same old things, with the same exorbitant prices.”

“All the stores have the same old things, with the same exorbitant prices,” Georgina complains. She does mental calculations as she looks at a product priced at $2.50. If she buys that for a granddaughter who just gave birth, then her daughter and niece will be left with nothing. “Pensions are around five or six dollars a month, and here any little thing costs half of that,” she laments. continue reading

Inflation has blurred the lines between necessity and sentimentality. / 14ymedio

Among the customers is Dianet, recently arrived from Palma Soriano and now living in a llega y pon [‘shanty town’] on the outskirts of town. She walks with a small child in tow and an impossible list running through her head: soap, deodorant, something for her mother in Oriente, and, if she can afford it, a little something for her cousins and sisters who live nearby. “This year, the only thing I can buy for the mothers in my family is a bar of soap each,” she admits with a mixture of shame and resignation.

As she speaks, an elderly woman examines packages of toilet paper as if appraising fine jewelry. In another corner, two young women argue about whether it’s worth spending seven dollars on shampoo or buying better cooking oil. Inflation has blurred the lines between necessity and sentimentality. A bottle of cologne can cost several days’ worth of food; a simple postcard, if it were to appear, would be almost a luxury.

“A one-way ticket costs 5,000 pesos. Instead of celebrating Mother’s Day, we’re living in times of hardship.”

For Dianet, going into a dollar store is reminiscent of the story of Martina the Cockroach: choosing between too many necessities with barely a few coins in her purse. “Before Friday, I plan to send my mom a money order for 200 or 300 pesos,” she explains. A trip to the East is out of the question. “A one-way ticket costs 5,000 pesos. Instead of celebrating Mother’s Day, we’re living in times of hardship.”

In the private shops downtown, the scene isn’t much different. The shop windows display bottles of rum, packets of coffee, a few imported sweets, and small perfumes that look like relics. The prices, however, are shocking. Twelve dollars for a modest fragrance, almost ten for a body cream, more than 1,000 pesos for a mug decorated with artificial flowers.

Aimé, a worker at the Banco Popular de Ahorro and a new grandmother, has spent days visiting state-run stores and micro-enterprises without making a decision. “I can’t spend $12 on perfume for my daughter, and besides, giving her spaghetti or condensed milk seems tacky for this occasion,” she says. She’s looking for something “that she’ll like and that will be useful,” a combination that has become almost impossible in today’s Cuba.

“A picture postcard accompanied by another item would be a decent gift,” she adds, while looking at some patterned napkins that she might end up buying for lack of alternatives. “But there aren’t even any postcards. Sometimes it’s better not to go into these places, because you leave empty-handed and disappointed.”

Outside, in the central park, a few artisans are trying to salvage the season by selling crocheted flowers, inexpensive jewelry, and varnished wooden frames. Several women stop, ask prices, and continue walking. Most are silently calculating their cash.

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The US Is Openly Increasing Its Military Flights Near Cuba, as a Warning

CNN documents at least 25 missions since February in the vicinity of the island in a pattern similar to that observed before the intervention in Venezuela

MQ 4C Triton, one of the surveillance drones detected in the vicinity of Cuba. / CC

14ymedio, Madrid, May 10, 2026 / At least 25 US military flights have been detected near Cuba since February 4, according to a CNN investigation based on open air tracking data and publicly available flight records. The network maintains that the pattern of operations appears to have been deliberately made visible in the context of increased tension between Washington and Havana.

The investigation documents military and intelligence flights around the island, most concentrated in the vicinity of Havana and Santiago de Cuba, some less than 64 kilometers from the coast. In comparison, the US conducted “only a few intelligence flights” of this nature near the island in 2025.

All the routes were identified using open platforms such as Flightradar24 and ADS-B Exchange , commonly used to track civil and military air traffic. “This occurs even though the aircraft involved have the ability—if they so choose—to conceal their presence by turning off their location beacons,” CNN notes.

CNN reports that “similar patterns, in which increased rhetoric from the Trump administration coincided with an increase in publicly visible surveillance flights, occurred before US military operations in both Venezuela and continue reading

Iran.”

The aircraft involved have the capability – if they so choose – to conceal their presence by turning off their location beacons.

The public exposure raises the question of whether the US is deliberately sending a signal about the presence of these aircraft to its adversaries. Regardless of whether this signal is intentional or not on the part of the US military or government, the message has triggered nervousness among Cuban officials and the public.

On social media, Cuban users are sharing reports of US surveillance flights and fueling growing concerns about a military intervention, like the one that took place on January 3 in Venezuela.

Most of the operations involved P-8A Poseidon aircraft, used by the US for maritime surveillance and reconnaissance missions. An RC-135V Rivet Joint, an aircraft dedicated to electronic intelligence gathering and interception, was also detected, as well as several MQ-4C Triton drones, used for high-altitude aerial observation.

These surveillance flights coincide with a context of growing verbal and political confrontation between Washington and Havana. Recently, the Trump administration has tightened sanctions against the regime and even hinted at intervention scenarios , although sources cited by The Associated Press (AP) have denied that the White House is planning a military operation in Cuba.

Independent of whether that signal was intentional or not on the part of the US Army or Government, the message has triggered nervousness among Cuban officials.

For its part, the Cuban regime has intensified its rhetoric of defending the “homeland”—or, what amounts to the same thing for them, the political system in place on the island—”to the death,” through the so-called “war of the whole people” strategy. However, despite the intense state campaign to demonstrate supposed popular support, public opinion—reflected in the results of the recent independent poll conducted by El Toque —does not appear to back the government.

CNN adds that the operations have been constant since February 4, the date on which Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío gave an interview to the network in which he stated that Havana was willing to talk with Washington, but ruled out any discussion about a change of political system.

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The Cuban Regime Is Applying a Timid “Chainsaw” to Its Government Apparatus

Cuba’s Council of Ministers proposes reducing the number of state entities from 27 to 21, although it has not yet revealed which ones will disappear or be merged.

The announced reduction may be a sign of belated rationality or merely a cosmetic operation. / Granma

14ymedio, Havana, Alejandro de Cañas, 10 May 2026 / The Cuban government has decided to downsize its own machinery, though instead of a chainsaw it is using garden shears. The Council of Ministers approved a draft bill to reduce the number of agencies in the Central State Administration from 27 to 21, a pruning of six entities in a country where bureaucracy has grown for decades at the same pace as inefficiency. The measure is not yet in effect; it must still be approved by the National Assembly, but it already marks the first concrete step in a restructuring announced weeks ago.

The news was published on May 9 in Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party. The article does not identify which agencies will disappear, be absorbed, or be merged—a significant omission in a reform presented as a fundamental redesign of the state apparatus.

In presenting the proposal, legal expert Andry Matilla Correa stated that “this is not merely a structural change, but rather a redesign of each of the Bodies of the Central State Administration (OACE).” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz was even more direct: “A small country, a country with such a complex situation, cannot have such a large structure, so much bureaucracy, which makes processes inefficient, and therefore requires a different design.”

For a country with fewer than ten million inhabitants, the structure seems bloated even when compared to governments of larger countries.

The decision didn’t come out of nowhere. In April, Miguel Díaz-Canel had already announced that the regime was preparing a “restructuring” of the state apparatus. In an interview with RT, the president stated: “We are also considering a restructuring of the entire state, administrative, and business apparatus; that is, reducing bureaucracy. This isn’t just about the structures themselves, because even a small structure can be bureaucratic. We have to work in both directions.” He also announced the goal of achieving “fewer continue reading

ministries and fewer intermediate structures between the territories and the country.”

That April announcement also had a regulatory precedent. On the 9th of that month, Decree 127 on budgeted institutions was published, officially presented as a regulation intended to “resize the Central State Administration,” improve its structures, and reduce the administrative burden on the public budget. In other words, before the proposed figure of 21 agencies was known, the Government had already begun to prepare the legal and rhetorical groundwork for streamlining its apparatus.

The reform is late, but not for lack of signals. Cuba currently maintains 22 ministries and five non-ministerial agencies within the 27 existing State Administrative Bodies (OACE), according to the institutional list published by the Presidency. For a country with fewer than ten million inhabitants, an impoverished economy, a chronic shortage of foreign currency, and deteriorating public services, the structure seems bloated, even when compared to the governments of larger countries.

If we consider only the number of ministries, Cuba has 22, the same number as Spain and more than Mexico, with 21 state secretariats; Colombia, with 19 ministries; and Argentina, which, after Javier Milei’s “chainsaw” reshuffle, reduced its cabinet to eight ministries. There is no standardized global ranking , because each country classifies its portfolios and agencies differently, but Cuba clearly ranks among the top countries when compared to several leading governments in Latin America.

The big question is which six organs will be affected.

For years, the Cuban regime presented itself as a model of rational planning, but it has maintained a cumbersome, fragmented, and costly state architecture inherited from the former Soviet Union. Even the official press now admits that this structure hinders processes and multiplies bureaucracy. This acknowledgment comes as the Cuban economy is experiencing one of its worst crises in decades, with blackouts, inflation, declining productivity, and a state increasingly unable to guarantee basic necessities.

The great unknown is which six agencies will be affected. Officially, this hasn’t been announced yet. Granma only reported the total reduction from 27 to 21. Logically, the possible candidates include the Institute of Information and Social Communication, which could be integrated into the Ministry of Communications; the National Institute of Territorial Planning and Urbanism, which could be absorbed by the Ministry of Construction; and the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, which could be transferred to the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment.

Among the ministries, the mergers that would make the most administrative sense would be Education with Higher Education, Industries with the Food Industry, or, more debatable, Domestic Trade with Foreign Trade and Investment. For now, all of this remains in the realm of conjecture, not a published decision.

The announced reduction may be a sign of belated rationality or merely a cosmetic operation. The decisive factor will not be how many titles disappear from the organizational charts, but how many procedures, layers of command, and spaces of irresponsibility and corruption disappear with them.

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Relations Between Cuba and Venezuela Are at a Standstill, Awaiting Developments in Both Countries

Havana remains silent on how many aid workers are still in the South American country, while Caracas dismantles part of the alliance that sustained the Cuban regime.

The disruption of Venezuelan oil production comes at a time when the economy is not in a position to withstand it. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, May 8, 2026 / The capture of Nicolás Maduro by US forces has plunged Cuba into one of its worst strategic nightmares. Venezuela no longer subsidizes oil for the island, it does not automatically obey Havana, and has a new government willing to review the cooperation mechanisms that for more than two decades allowed the Cuban regime to compensate for its declining production with Venezuelan aid.

The main blow is, above all, energy. For years, Venezuela was the island’s primary oil supplier, even when shipments no longer reached the levels agreed upon by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro in 2000. In 2025, Cuba received—according to some agencies—between 11,000 and 16,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude oil per day, although others raise the estimate to 27,000 barrels per day. In some months, the flow was much higher.

This dependence explains the unease that has taken hold in Havana since January, when the new Venezuelan government began to sever ties with the Plaza de la Revolución. Cuban researcher Pável Alemán, quoted by EFE, acknowledges that “it is difficult to pinpoint the exact state of the bilateral relationship,” although he warns of a “gradual cooling” following the decisions made by Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez.

The interruption of Venezuelan oil is not happening to an economy in a position to withstand it

According to Alemán, the new Venezuelan government “is gradually dismantling a group of social programs that had been approved long before,” in addition to complying with “the US request to stop exporting oil to Cuba” and approving “much more profound” changes, including the reform of the Hydrocarbons Law. “This has a negative continue reading

impact on Cuban society and, logically, on bilateral relations,” he told the Spanish news agency.

The interruption of Venezuelan oil supplies is not happening to an economy in a position to withstand it. Cuba imports a significant portion of its fuel, its aging thermoelectric plants are operating at near capacity, and the regime has received only one shipment of Russian oil—delivered by a single tanker on March 30—since the last Mexican shipment arrived on January 9. In recent years, imports have been insufficient to prevent blackouts, restrictions on transportation, and an industrial crisis that extends from nickel production to agriculture.

But oil was only one part of the pact with Caracas. The other was the Cuban presence in Venezuela. Doctors, trainers, political advisors, intelligence officers, and military specialists were deeply embedded in key Chavista institutions. The alliance was sold for years as a cooperative effort, but in practice it functioned as an exchange of fuel for professional services and political control.

Relations are “totally paralyzed” and awaiting developments in both Caracas and Havana.

Professor Efraín Vázquez Vera, also quoted by EFE, believes that relations are “totally paralyzed” and awaiting developments in both Caracas and Havana. In his view, Venezuela is no longer a “factor” in Cuban politics, and Maduro’s arrest serves more as a warning: “a latent threat or possibility of what could happen in Cuba.”

Havana, for the moment, is avoiding public confrontation. In the last four months, communications between the two governments have decreased significantly, as have gestures of support and personal contacts.

Silence also surrounds the situation of the Cubans who remain in Venezuela. After Maduro’s capture, 14ymedio documented the repatriation flights on Cubana de Aviación’s Ilyushin IL-96, as well as testimonies from doctors quartered in Venezuela awaiting their return to the island. However, the government has never reported how many aid workers were evacuated, how many remain in Venezuelan territory, or what has happened to the remaining personnel involved in security operations.

There is “a bit of resentment on the part of Cubans,” because some on the Island believe that the operation against Maduro had “internal” Venezuelan support and that, therefore, the Island’s military was “sacrificed.”

Vázquez Vera believes he senses “a bit of resentment on the part of Cubans,” because some on the island believe that the operation against Maduro had “internal” Venezuelan support and that, therefore, the Cuban military personnel who were part of his protection detail were “sacrificed.” Although, officially, the Cuban regime has not issued any criticism.

Alemán avoids using the term “treason,” but acknowledges the moral impact of the incident. It was, he told EFE, “the first time in decades that Cubans had fallen in a conflict on the soil of another country.” At least 32 members of the Cuban Armed Forces died during the U.S. operation on January 3 at Fort Tiuna, where officers specializing in counterintelligence, psychological warfare, and crowd control were stationed.

Alemán maintains that any attempt to replicate a Venezuelan-style operation on the island would clash with Cuban nationalism, which he says is more unifying than ideology itself. “Here, it won’t be easy for them to find someone to negotiate with behind the backs of Cuban society and launch a government replacement project,” he told EFE. The problem for the Cuban regime is that the Venezuelan crisis has already had its effects without a single Delta Force soldier ever setting foot in Havana.

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Havana Chronicles: A Desperate Plea in the Middle of the Dark Havana Night: ‘Light!’

From the crumbling doorways of Monte Street to the neighborhoods without electricity, the Cuban capital displays the physical and emotional toll of the crisis

When I finally leave that avenue behind, I feel like I’ve returned from a war zone. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Yoani Sánchez, May 9, 2026 — May doesn’t feel like May. It has the face of July and the temperament of August. I know this from the irritability I encounter at every step. Social fatigue often manifests as fights over anything, a shout here and a shove there that add a little more anxiety to the already harsh daily grind. A shoe unintentionally stepped-on, a phrase spoken to the wrong person, or an indiscrete glance can unleash anything.

But I’m lucky. Amid the widespread discomfort caused by the long blackouts that have returned with a vengeance, the lack of water that makes our skin sticky and our smells unbearable, I always find a helping hand. Like the man who helps me pick up the cachucha peppers I dropped on a corner because the plastic bag couldn’t hold them, or the young woman who helps me get onto the electric tricycle without stumbling, and the elderly woman who stands beside me and shields me with her umbrella because “this sun is unbearable.”

The broken names of former businesses are visible on the floors of the doorways. / 14ymedio

They’re barely turning on the electricity in my neighborhood anymore. Not in my neighborhood, not in the rest of Cuba. A neighbor says we have to eat everything that needs refrigeration this weekend because we won’t have any more power. We’ll have to say goodbye to the electrical outlets in every house, bid a well-deserved farewell to the light switches, hold a wake for all those wires strung between poles, all those silenced appliances, all those LED lights above our heads. We’ll have to close the door on modernity and swallow the key to begin the total return to darkness.

In our apartment, we open windows, doors, and cracks every night. We’re lucky to live on a high floor facing the northeast trade winds. The only thing left to do is peel off our skin to see if that cools things down a bit. In the middle of the night, I always think about the people who live in the tenement in Central Havana where I was born. With hardly any ventilation, living in tiny rooms with a wall from the neighboring tenement blocking any breeze, they have few options. If I’m like this, I’m afraid they must be slowly roasting in that tenement on Jesús Peregrino Street.

Last night a desperate voice cried out in my neighborhood. It said something like “light” and then a swear word. I was drenched in sweat and paralyzed after several nights with barely three or four hours of sleep. When I woke up, I didn’t know if that cry had been real, but a neighbor confirmed it. I feel guilty for not having supported the lone protester, but I was exhausted. The day before, I had been given a grueling task: to go to an area of the city that stirs up memories.

The long inspiration wasn’t just because of the foul smells emanating from their doorways, but also to numb my emotions. / 14ymedio

Monte Street, now that’s a whole other story. So I had to take a deep breath before plunging onto its sidewalks after crossing Fraternity Park. The long inhalation wasn’t just because of the foul smells emanating from its doorways, but also to numb my emotions at the sight of one of the many routes from my childhood, now a ruin. “Let’s go there,” I told myself, not quite believing my own enthusiasm.

No Havana street is as dilapidated and its people as broken as Monte. Traveling along it is like stepping into a Cuba of gritty realism or ghost stories. There’s nothing to inspire optimism along this avenue that cuts through some of the most densely populated neighborhoods of the Cuban capital. They haven’t even touched the occasional fresh coat of paint applied to the facades where foreign dignitaries or popes pass by. Nor has the garbage been collected, unlike in those places visited by government officials for photo ops.

If Monte is a corpse, the alleyways that lead into it are already dust. / 14ymedio

The faded names of former businesses are visible on the portals. The shop windows, their broken panes covered with boards, exhibit in the few pieces intact merchandise covered with dust and and containers of cleaning products that promise to fill the house with fragrance and shine. A store overflowing with imported trinkets has a long line of people buying to take all that single-use plastic and cheap silicone back to some small town on the island to resell.

If Monte is a cadver, the alleyways that lead into it are already dust. I venture into one of them. At the end of a passageway, I see a child playing with a flattened plastic bottle as a ball. Two women are arguing over who gets to fill buckets of water at a sink that’s practically touching the ground. Further on, a man sleeps on a damp piece of cardboard, and a portable radio blasts a song from the nineties, as if the whole place were frozen in time. Nowhere on my journey do I have internet service on my phone.

When I finally leave that avenue behind, I feel like I’ve returned from a war zone. But the truce is short-lived. As soon as I enter my neighborhood, I hear the hum of the Ministry of Transportation’s generator, announcing that there’s no electricity. I run into several neighbors with long faces. Could one of them be the one who, a few hours later, shouted “light!” in the middle of the night?

Previous Havana Chronicles:

The Refuse of Disenchantment

Under a Picture-Postcard Blue Sky, the Country is Crumbling

Fatigue Barely Allows One to Enjoy the ‘Lights On’ in Havana

Dollars, the Classic Card, and a Havana Without Tourists

A Journey Through the Lost Names of Havana

The Shipwreck of a Ship Called “Cuba”

Havana Seen From ‘The Control Tower’

In Havana, the Only Ones Who Move Are the Mosquitoes

Reina, the Stately Street Where Garbage is Sold

Searching for Light Through the Deserted Streets of Havana

The Death Throes of ‘Granma’, the Mouthpiece of a Regime Cornered by Crisis

The Anxiety of the Disconnected Cuban

One Mella, Three Mellas, Life in Cuba Is Measured in Thousands of Pesos

It Is Forbidden To Leave Home in Cuba Today Because It Is a “Counter-Revolutionary Day”

Vedado, the Heart of Havana’s Nightlife, Is Now Converted Into a Desert

Havana, in Critical Condition

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Recycled Chinese Shipping Containers Provide New Homes for Hundreds of Homeless Cubans

The first beneficiaries are regime militants who lived in overcrowded conditions for many years

View of the two new container homes in Nuevo Vedado, Havana / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, May 8, 2026 – It is no surprise that Alina Hinojosa Cardona and Nerelys Madan Catalá are celebrating their new homes, containers converted into housing for “young working women, single mothers and heads of household,” as the official press presented them last Saturday.

The first was living, that report stated, in a “small room in poor and overcrowded conditions,” and the second, in a shelter “for more than 13 years.”

Compared to that, the two little container-houses, located in a good area of Nuevo Vedado, in Havana, near 26th Street and just a few meters from Tulipán Avenue, with a rear patio-garden that includes a wash area, a solar panel on the roof, and brand-new finishes and paint, are chalets.

In Granma’s report on the handover ceremony, carried out by none other than the ruler, Miguel Díaz-Canel, it was not specified whether the homes were privately owned or not.

In Granma’s report on the handover ceremony, carried out by none other than the ruler, Miguel Díaz-Canel, it was not specified whether the homes were privately owned or not, but 14ymedio confirmed, through one of the two brand-new tenants, that they belong to the State. The women and their families have use of them under usufruct rights.

A neighbor from the area informed this newspaper that the new houses were installed in 12 days and assures that “inside they are very beautiful.” They were delivered, she says, with several appliances, “a blender and everything.” In one of the windows, behind completely transparent glass, they placed a colorful scarf as a curtain, to avoid being seen from the outside.

No air-conditioning mechanism can be seen, however, and the iron of the containers has not been covered with any material, as happens in other parts of the world where this type of structure is converted into habitable spaces. They do, however, have a solar panel on top of the roof.

According to Granma, their construction used “leftovers from tourism investment projects and technologies developed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces.” The base consisted of maritime containers in which “parts and components for photovoltaic solar panel parks sent by the People’s Republic of China” had been imported.

No air-conditioning mechanism can be seen, and the iron of the containers has not been covered with any material. / 14ymedio

There are families living in the homes: Madan Catalá with her mother and child in one, and in the other, Hinojosa Cardona with two children. The official press presents the stories of both women while trying to offer a heroic narrative, but in reality revealing the impossibility of having decent housing even in the case of salaried employees and obedient servants of the Party. Alina, says Granma, leads the base committee of the Young Communist League at her workplace, “an organization she joined at 14 continue reading

years of age,” and Nerelys, besides being a secretary, “served as delegate for her district for two terms starting at age 22.”

Their stories, however, mainly aim to praise the virtues of recycling maritime containers into modular homes and to validate “the viability of this alternative to respond in the short term to the growing housing needs of our people,” which they insist “is an international practice.” Granma’s lengthy chronicle reported that the delivered homes “are proof that these can be built tastefully and aesthetically, integrated into communities and the urban environment, contributing to beautification, while also helping the neighborhood through induced works and serving as encouragement to women, many of them alone and responsible for their families.”

The program, they also claim, “generates enthusiasm,” but according to statements at the same event by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, “it is not moving at the speed desired; it is being done, but it can be carried out faster.” The authorities indeed mentioned the housing deficit the country has, of more than 800,000 homes, and praised “the potential” represented by maritime containers, a “material that is generally an environmental problem,” as reasons to carry out the initiative.

Faced with this, several specialists have expressed suspicions, questioning above all whether, since they are metal structures—a strong conductor of heat—the insulation is adequate for a climate like Cuba’s. Thus, for example, engineer Yulieta Hernández, who wrote on her social media: “Even with designed passive solutions (real cross ventilation, air chambers, shading), the interior can become uninhabitable. In the colder months the opposite happens: thermal inertia is low and comfort is easily lost. An oven in summer and a freezer in winter.”

Image of one of the usufruct beneficiaries at the ceremony handing over the container homes conducted by Miguel Díaz-Canel. / Granma

The expert stated she was speaking from experience, “after having used several as temporary facilities on construction projects.” In her lengthy post she also questioned numerous elements, such as the quality of the electrical insulation: “the combination of metal structure, humidity, leaks, and improvised wiring can be dangerous if there is no proper grounding, differential protection, and rigorous execution;” the waterproofing: “critical points are visible at first glance,” “sheet metal undulations around the windows,” and “areas prone to leaks;” and the possible weakness of this type of housing against cyclones. “The roof looks like it will fly away with the first strong wind,” she states, and the materials are incompatible, since “metal is a material with high thermal expansion and contraction, so when combined with rigid finishes like ceramic or tiles, problems of adhesion, cracking, and detachment tend to appear.”

Other specialists, however, have spoken in favor, such as Abel Tablada. The architect offered his point of view, he explained, after visiting one of these container homes that form part of a group of 300 planned for installation in the area of the former Toledo sugar mill, opposite the José Antonio Echeverría Technological University of Havana (Cujae).

“We were able to verify that to reduce heat transfer, a second roof with an intermediate ventilation space was designed, and in the walls, the metal was insulated with an air layer and a plywood panel on the inside,” Tablada assures in a Facebook post that quickly filled with comments. In it he also says that “professors from Cujae measured the interior temperatures before the transformation and will return once the home is finished to validate the effectiveness of the thermal insulation measures.”

Regarding ventilation, he explains, “it is achieved through cross ventilation due to the narrowness of the container and the placement of louvered windows in each room”

Regarding ventilation, he explains, “it is achieved through cross ventilation due to the narrowness of the container and the placement of louvered windows in each room.” The home, he describes, “has a porch, a kitchen-dining room, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry area with a rear porch,” just like those observed by 14ymedio in Nuevo Vedado.

The architect states that he made several suggestions to improve this type of house, among them “completing the monitoring of interior conditions to determine whether the thermal insulation is sufficient,” “using the double roof to install solar panels so that this community not only becomes energy self-sufficient but can also feed energy into the grid,” and “painting the exterior surfaces light colors” to reduce radiation absorption, “since the eaves do not provide good coverage on the rear façade and the sides.”

His conclusion, in any case, reinforces the official narrative that the reuse of containers was not simply a temporary solution for hurricane victims, as the regime initially presented it, but was also something intended to remain permanently: “For families who have lost everything or for young people beginning adulthood without having been able to inherit anything, obtaining a container home is a considerable improvement in their lives, and this solution, despite any additional improvements it may need, is welcome.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The US Sanctions the Cuban State Company Gaesa, Its President and the State-Owned Nickel Mining Company

The list falls under Trump’s executive order from six days ago, which establishes sanctions for those “responsible for repression in Cuba and threats to the national security” of the United States.

Image of the nickel mines in Moa, Holguín, shared by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, criticizing the new US sanctions. / X/@BrunoRguezP

14ymedio, Madrid, May 7, 2026 / The State Department named new individuals within the Cuban regime, on Thursday, sanctioned by the United States. They are the powerful Business Administration Group (GAESA); its president, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera; and the state-owned company associated with the Canadian firm Sherritt International that operates in the Holguín mines, Moa Nickel SA.

In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that he designated these “subjects” under the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on May 1, which determined to impose sanctions “on those responsible for repression in Cuba and threats to U.S. national security and foreign policy.”

Cuba’s military conglomerate Gaesa is on the list, the document states, “for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the Cuban economy,” and its president, “for being or having been a leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors of Gaesa.” As for Moa Nickel, it is sanctioned “for operating or having operated in the metallurgical and mining sector of the Cuban economy.”

This same Thursday, citing Trump’s May 1st order, Sherritt, the international partner of the Cuban state mining company, announced the suspension of its activities on the island and the immediate repatriation of its employees, including the Cubans it employs in Canada.

It is within this context that the stampede of the Canadian Sherritt from the nickel mines in Moa can be explained.

The sanctions, Rubio explained, mean that “all property and interests” of those designated “are blocked” and “must be reported to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).” Any entity or individual, the statement continued, “that is 50% or more owned, directly or indirectly, by them or with other blocked persons, is also blocked.”

Also prohibited are transactions by Americans, within the country or even in transit, involving any property or interest of the sanctioned, unless, continue reading

it specifies, authorized by an OFAC license.

Similarly, it warns that “foreign individuals who participate in transactions with designated persons” or “who operate in the energy, defense and related materials, metallurgy and mining, financial services, or security sectors of the Cuban economy” risk being “subject to sanctions.” It is within this context that the exodus of the Canadian company Sherritt from the nickel mines in Moa can be explained.

The regime reacted immediately to the new sanctions through its usual channel: the X account of Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez. “With the additional collective punishment measures announced today against Cuba, the US government confirms its genocidal intent against the Cuban nation and dispels any doubt about the falsity of its pretexts for attacking our country,” the foreign minister stated, without mentioning any of those sanctioned by name, but attaching an image of the Holguín mining operation.

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More Sanctions Against the Cuban Regime Are Coming, Marco Rubio Announces in Rome

Gaesa is “a holding company created by generals that has generated billions of dollars in revenue, none of which benefits the Cuban people,” the Secretary of State explained to the Italian press.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, alongside his Italian counterpart, Antonio Tajani, at the Farnesina Palace in Rome, this Friday. / EFE/EPA/Fabio Frustaci

14ymedio, Madrid, May 8, 2025 / US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted on Friday that further sanctions against the Cuban regime will follow those announced on Thursday. When asked about them at a press conference in Rome, after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, he explained that the Business Administration Group (GAESA) is “a holding company created by generals in Cuba that has generated billions of dollars in revenue, none of which benefits the Cuban people.”

He continued: “Not a single cent of that money benefits the Cuban people. There is the Cuban government, which has a budget, and then there is this private company that has more money than the government itself. Not a single cent from that company goes toward building a single road, a single bridge, or providing a single grain of rice to a single Cuban, except for the people who are part of GAESA.”

“These are not sanctions against the Cuban people,” he affirmed, but rather sanctions against “companies that are basically taking everything that generates money in Cuba and illegally funneling it into the pockets of a few members of the regime.” He emphasized this point, arguing that “this is a sanction against this company that is robbing the Cuban people for the benefit of a few.”

“These are not sanctions against the Cuban people,” he affirmed, but rather sanctions against “companies that are basically taking everything that generates money in Cuba.”

Rubio said he did not discuss it during the audience yesterday, Thursday, with Pope Leo XIV, but added: “We are going to take further measures.”

What they did discuss, he said, was aid to Cuba. Regarding this, he informed the Pope that the United States had provided six million dollars in humanitarian aid, which was distributed by Caritas, the Catholic Church’s charity, and that they were prepared to do more.

“In fact,” he asserted, “we have offered the regime $100 million in humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, so far they have not agreed to distribute it continue reading

to help the people of Cuba. We considered providing hurricane relief, but it is the regime that refuses. It is the regime that is standing in the way.”

The US, he emphasized, “wants to help Cuba, which is suffering because of this incompetent regime that has destroyed the country and the economy.”

The State Department, headed by Rubio, on Thursday named new individuals sanctioned by the U.S. administration within the Cuban regime: in addition to Gaesa: they are the president of Gaesa, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and the state-owned company associated with the Canadian firm Sherritt International that operates in the Holguín mines, Moa Nickel SA

The Foreign Ministry itself echoed this Friday the demonstrations carried out in Italy this Thursday against the Secretary of State

In a statement, the Secretary of State explained that he designated these “subjects” under the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on May 1 , which determined to impose sanctions “on those responsible for repression in Cuba and threats to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

The regime reacted immediately to the new sanctions, via the Foreign Minister’s social media accounts, which described the measures as a “collective punishment” and denounced the US for “its genocidal intent against the Cuban nation.”

The Italian Foreign Ministry itself echoed reports on Friday of the demonstrations held in Italy on Thursday against the US Secretary of State for his visit, in “more than 50 cities.” The official press also reported a “massive demonstration” in Rome’s central Piazza dei Apostoli, organized by the Network of Communists and other far-left youth organizations, such as Cambiare Rotta and the Alternative Student Opposition (OSA). “Rubio out of Rome!” and “Cuba is not alone!” were among the slogans chanted by the pro-Castro crowd.

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Meliá Closes 50% of Its Hotels in Cuba Due to Lack of Tourists

Executives of the Spanish chain state that domestic tourism accounts for “virtually all bookings for hotels still open”

The situation confirms the deterioration of a market that for decades was considered strategic for Meliá. / EFE

14ymedio, Madrid, May 7, 2026 / The Spanish hotel chain Meliá Hotels International has reduced its operations in Cuba, closing approximately 50% of its hotel capacity on the island. The decision, implemented gradually during the first quarter of the year, is a response to the energy crisis, fuel shortages, and the decline in international air connections, as the company acknowledged in its financial results, published this Thursday.

The Balearic company, one of the largest foreign operators in the Cuban tourism sector, did not specify how many or which of its hotels remain closed. However, it admitted that as of the end of March, only about half of its hotel portfolio in the country was operational, where it currently manages 34 establishments and more than 5,000 rooms.

The chain also acknowledges that the establishments still operating depend almost entirely on domestic tourism, which accounts for “virtually all bookings for the hotels still open.” However, this market is insufficient to offset the drop in foreign visitors. In practice, the company has been forced to reduce its operational presence in the country while it awaits an eventual normalization of energy supplies and a recovery in international demand.

Meliá notes that operations in Cuba have been “significantly compromised” since the beginning of the year due to difficulties in obtaining fuel and the deterioration of the tourism market.

The measure expands upon the adjustment announced in February, when Meliá reported the temporary closure of three of its 35 hotels in Cuba . Operations are now concentrated in a smaller number of facilities, an increasingly common practice in the Cuban tourism sector due to shortages of customers, fuel, and supplies.

In its report, Meliá notes that its operations in Cuba have been “significantly compromised” since the beginning of the year due to difficulties in obtaining fuel and the deteriorating tourism market. The company added that the lack of aviation fuel has led to the cancellation of numerous direct flights to the island, including those from continue reading

Canada, which remains the country’s main source of tourists.

This collapse in flights further aggravated an already weakened international demand. Hotels that remained open registered an average occupancy rate of just 34.1% between January and March, a very low figure for a destination that for years received substantial public investment in tourism infrastructure.

The situation confirms the decline of a market that for decades was considered strategic for Meliá. The company operates in destinations such as Havana, Varadero, Cayo Coco, Cayo Santa María, and Holguín, many of them designed for international sun and beach tourism. However, the combination of power outages, fuel shortages, logistical problems, and reduced flights has severely limited the profitability of these destinations.

In its forecasts, the hotel chain warns that the evolution of the business in Cuba will depend on how events unfold, the recovery of supplies, and an eventual return to normality.

Looking ahead to the coming months, the hotel chain is avoiding offering a clear reopening timeline. In its forecasts, it cautions that the evolution of the business in Cuba will depend on how events unfold, the recovery of supplies, and an eventual return to normality. Meanwhile, operations will continue to be limited by the drop in international demand and the coordinated lockdown measures implemented in the country.

The Cuban blow was also reflected in Meliá’s global accounts. The company posted a net profit of €3.3 million in the first quarter, 68% less than the €10.5 million earned in the same period of the previous year. Despite this drop, the group’s total global revenue increased by 4.4% to €460.6 million, and RevPAR, the indicator that measures revenue per available room, grew by 8.3%.

The company attributes this positive performance to other markets, especially holiday destinations in Spain, Europe, and the Caribbean, where it reports double-digit growth compared to the previous year. It also maintains that, for the time being, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have not had a significant impact on either demand or costs, although it remains cautious regarding potential energy price increases and disruptions to air capacity.

For Cuba, however, the outlook is much bleaker. The island is experiencing one of the worst energy crises in its history, with prolonged blackouts, electricity generation deficits, and chronic difficulties importing fuel. This situation affects the population, state-owned enterprises, and also foreign businesses that depend on a stable infrastructure to operate.

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The Onei Admits That Cuba Lacks 91.5% of Medicines and Health Supplies

Inflation figures, 1.5% in April and 14.7% year-on-year, reflect the disappearance of drugs, which are now acquired almost entirely on the black market at high prices.

Illegal drug stall on Diez de Octubre Avenue in Havana. / 14ymedio

The shortage of essential medicines has reached such levels that it is almost necessary to “invent” the cost of products to calculate the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Cuba. In its April price report, published this Thursday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), an imputation rate of 91.5% had to be applied in the Health category, a record high since this report began being compiled.

Imputation is a tool used in statistics when the technicians compiling the data cannot find a particular product on the market—whether due to scarcity or unavailability. In this situation, the surveyors make an estimate to ensure the continuity of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This practice is standardized and necessary to maintain the data chain, but it also reveals where there are gaps, whether they are significant, whether they persist over time, and their evolution, among other indicators.

The table for this month shows, as usual, that most sectors remain reasonably stable – with imputations between 0% and 2% – with the exception of the food and non-alcoholic beverages sector, where a 5.25% adjustment was necessary. High imputations in this segment are common in the ONEI CPI reports due to shortages of many food products. For example, a very high rate of 25% was recorded in November 2024.

The shortage was already evident as far back as December 2021, when a 50% charge had to be applied.

However, nothing compares to the catastrophe suffered by the Health division, a segment where prices don’t usually rise. The real reason isn’t so much whether they do or not, but their mere absence. The shortage was continue reading

already evident as far back as December 2021, when a 50% imputation had to be applied. Looking at the trend, almost randomly, one can see how the situation has worsened dramatically. In March 2022, the rate rose to 56.6%, by August 2023 it was already at 66%, and in September 2024 it reached 85%. Just two months later (November 2024) it reached an unprecedented peak of 90.9%, but it stabilized in 2025.

It isn’t that the situation is not much better, as imputations hovered around 85% throughout last year, but that this March they reached 88.7%, and the absolute record was set in April. This figure indicates that almost all products must be “estimated” because there’s no way to measure them, revealing that Cubans are acquiring virtually all their medicines and medical supplies on the black market. The situation has been entrenched for more than five years, but the shortage has reached unsustainable levels that, according to experts, only appear in contexts of hyperinflation and extreme scarcity.

Moreover, inflation levels are rising again after the restraint shown for many months last year. This month, prices rose 1.5% overall, although some sectors stand out, such as transportation at 2.7%. And this doesn’t even take into account the brutal price hikes seen on the street, where gasoline can be found for 5,000 pesos per liter. “Just yesterday, my sister had to go to a family celebration here, about 20 blocks away. We had to make three trips, and the driver charged us 12,000 pesos for each one,” a resident of Luyanó told this newspaper.

The food sector is also rising again and is 21% more expensive than in April 2025, as are restaurants and hotels.

In April, intercity buses and taxis saw price increases of between 10% and 13%, and while the rise in urban transport was more moderate, taxis, at 8.4%, experienced the smallest price hike. This sector, which has been suffering the consequences of fuel shortages for years, is 17% more expensive since January and 21% more expensive compared to prices a year ago, with the resulting consequences for a population for whom transportation is essential.

The food sector is also rising again, and is 21% more expensive than in April 2025, as are restaurants and hotels—which includes takeaway food—which have increased by 24% year-on-year. Although most of the highlighted food items showed price decreases this month, others, such as milk, taro, and mutton, increased by almost 5% in some cases.

Overall, inflation has risen 7.18% so far this year and 14.7% year-on-year, according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI). For months now, prices from private vendors have accounted for 83% of the database due to shortages in state-run markets. Meanwhile, American economist Steve Hanke published his own estimate this Friday, which projects inflation at 29% by 2025, placing Cuba 40th in his ranking of the world’s poorest countries. Just a few weeks ago, he placed annual inflation at 44%, while the Cuban peso has depreciated 30% against the dollar, the fifth worst performance for any currency in the world.

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Havana Chronicles: The Refuse of Disenchantment

Each mountain of garbage reveals a country where ideological books end up mixed with broken appliances.

Each abandoned package tells the story of a family that saved money for months to escape the blackouts. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, May 7, 2026 / I pass by yet another mountain of garbage I encounter on the road, and it’s as if each piece of trash speaks to me. The true national narrative emerges from this waste that rots under the May sun and is carried by the wind or downpours through streets and avenues. There are countries that tell their history through their shop windows and museums, but here ours are narrated by our filth.

Years ago, the garbage dumps were littered with vegetable peels, rice husks, and even Granma newspapers. Now, among the trash, boxes empty of rechargeable flashlights, Chinese batteries, small solar panels, and portable generators are appearing. The Island of Darkness has begun to leave its mark even in the garbage. Each abandoned package speaks of a family that saved dollars for months to escape the blackouts, but also of the sacrifice of the emigrants who help illuminate the dark nights.

The boxes often still have the product photos printed on them: a lightbulb in the middle of a spotless room, a smiling couple as electricity illuminates a kitchen where nothing is ever lacking. The advertising for these appliances has a cruel edge in Cuba. The images on their packaging don’t just sell energy—I’d say energy—they also sell normalcy. They promise a quiet fan, refrigerated food, mosquito-free nights, and children doing homework under steady light. They promise a country that doesn’t exist.

Even stray animals have learned to read the transformation of our waste. The dogs and cats that roam around the garbage know that people are throwing away fewer and fewer edible items. Before, they found bones, leftover food, pieces of stale bread. Now they rummage for hours through nylon, damp cardboard, and plastic containers to find barely anything to eat. Inflation has also emptied the garbage piles of the remnants of our daily rations. continue reading

The “divers” know this better than anyone; those men and women who submerge half their bodies inside containers looking for something to eat or to feed a pig

The “divers” know this better than anyone—those men and women who plunge half their bodies into shipping containers looking for something to eat or to feed a pig. Most of the time they stumble upon bladeless fans, gutted televisions, open electric rice cookers, damp mattress stuffing, pieces of plastic, and scraps of cardboard. Some of these appliances were broken by the brutal power surges that accompany the return of electricity after a blackout.

But perhaps nothing is more symbolic than the discarded books. There they are, soaked by the rain and covered in mold: old manuals of Marxism, volumes of political speeches, complete collections of ideological propaganda, and even diplomas awarded “for outstanding participation in socialist emulations.” Sometimes files from state offices appear, bureaucratic papers carelessly tossed aside, and entire archives that no one bothered to destroy. As if even the authorities themselves had lost faith in their significance. Cuban trash no longer contains only material remains: it contains a part of the nation’s disillusionment.

However, amidst all this waste, small dreams also emerge. A box from an air conditioner bought in Panama that will barely turn on due to the lack of electricity. An empty perfume bottle brought from Miami that was never used in a club, because most are closed in this city. Box after box of European chocolates, stored for days before being thrown into the tank, which consumed a good portion of a month’s salary.

It is enough to look at the trash dumps to understand what this nation eats, what it has lost, what it desires, and what it has stopped believing in.

Previous Havana Chronicles:

Under a Picture-Postcard Blue Sky, the Country is Crumbling

Fatigue Barely Allows One to Enjoy the ‘Lights On’ in Havana

Dollars, the Classic Card, and a Havana Without Tourists

A Journey Through the Lost Names of Havana

The Shipwreck of a Ship Called “Cuba”

Havana Seen From ‘The Control Tower’

In Havana, the Only Ones Who Move Are the Mosquitoes

Reina, the Stately Street Where Garbage is Sold

Searching for Light Through the Deserted Streets of Havana

The Death Throes of ‘Granma’, the Mouthpiece of a Regime Cornered by Crisis

The Anxiety of the Disconnected Cuban

One Mella, Three Mellas, Life in Cuba Is Measured in Thousands of Pesos

It Is Forbidden To Leave Home in Cuba Today Because It Is a “Counter-Revolutionary Day”

Vedado, the Heart of Havana’s Nightlife, Is Now Converted Into a Desert

Havana, in Critical Condition
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Canadian Company Sherritt Suspends its Operations in Cuba and Repatriates its Staff

The multinational nickel company attributes this decision to the new US sanctions against the Havana regime.
Cuban employees at the company’s facilities in Alberta province will have to return to the island.

Sherritt executives with Cuban officials at the mining complex in Moa, Holguín, in an archive photo. / ACN

14ymedio, Madrid May 7, 2026 / The Canadian company Sherritt International Corporation announced this Thursday the suspension of its joint venture activities in Cuba with immediate effect and will begin repatriating its employees on the island, and similarly Cubans in Canada. The Toronto-based mining company had been operating in Cuba since 1991, but sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump have brought this venture to an end 35 years later.

In a statement issued by the Toronto-based company, Sherritt reports the decision made after a meeting with its advisors, which it had already announced on Monday, when it said it would evaluate the situation after learning of the executive order signed by Trump on May 4, which targets non-U.S. citizens and entities doing business on the island.

“Sherritt has not been formally designated under the executive order. However, such a designation could occur at any time. In any case, its mere issuance creates conditions that materially alter the Corporation’s ability to operate in the ordinary course of business, including activities related to the operations of the Cuban joint venture,” the statement explains.

The company announced that Brian Imrie, Richard Moat, and Brett Richards have resigned from the Corporation’s Board of Directors “effective immediately.”

In addition, the company announced that Brian Imrie, Richard Moat, and Brett Richards have resigned from the Corporation’s Board of Directors “effective immediately.” While no reasons have been specified, it is assumed that their departures are due to the possibility of individual disciplinary action. continue reading

In the statement, the company adds that the decision has been communicated to the Cuban side via letter. So far, there has been no reaction from Cuban authorities, although one is expected, given that this Thursday’s front page of the State newspaper Granma features an article titled “Sanctions, Threats… The History of a Genocidal Vocation,” dedicated to this issue, and this occurred before the Canadian company’s decision, which has generated substantial profits for the Cuban state coffers, was even known.

“Currently, there is no immediate impact on operations in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. The refinery continues to produce finished nickel and cobalt for sale. The feed inventory available for this production is expected to last until approximately mid-June,” the company statement added.

According to its explanation, the Trump administration’s executive order contained other potential problems, such as the possibility that suppliers of any kind—financial or material—could cease supporting their operations or other activities. It also indicated that its advisors would continue to evaluate the implications of the measure.

Sherritt’s relationship with Cuba began in the early 1990s, when the Canadian company started buying nickel concentrate from the island for its refinery in Alberta. This business eventually led to another: direct mining operations. Years later, it was the foreign company that had most diversified its activities in Cuba, becoming involved in sectors such as oil, gas, and energy, especially through its stake in Energas, where it holds a 33% share.

Although this issue is not addressed in the statement, it is understood that it is also leaving the joint venture.

Although this issue is not addressed in the statement, it is understood that it is also leaving the joint venture it shares with the state-owned companies Cuba Petróleo (Cupet) and Unión Eléctrica de Cuba. This company, which supplies approximately 10% of the energy to the national electricity grid, has three power plants in the north of the island, in Varadero, Boca de Jaruco, and Puerto Escondido.

In addition, the company owns mines in Moa (Holguín). In February of this year, Sherritt announced it was pausing mining operations and putting its processing plant on hold. The decision was made after receiving “notification that planned fuel deliveries to Moa will not be met and the timeframe for resuming deliveries is unknown,” the statement said.

The company has been a key asset for the Cuban state, which has used the lucrative revenues from nickel and cobalt to meet its international obligations, so the blow is evident. However, in the last month it was revealed that Chinese technology had arrived at the state-owned Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara plant. This could be a sign that China will fill the void left by the Canadian company.

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The Cuban Economy Will Suffer a Much Larger GDP Decline Than Predicted by ECLAC

Cuban economist Pedro Monreal predicts a 15% drop in gross domestic product, compared to the 6.5% forecast by the Latin American organization

Informal stalls on Monte Street in Havana have proliferated as the economy deteriorates. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, May 7, 2026 / Cuban economist Pedro Monreal is far more pessimistic in his forecasts for 2026 than the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) [CEPAL in Spanish], predicting a 15% drop in Cuba’s gross domestic product (GDP) [PIB in Spanish], “similar to the 14.9% drop in 1993.” The expert acknowledges that such a calculation is very complicated “because it essentially attempts to assign a number to uncertainty,” but he warns of the seriousness of the figure, “because the current crisis is more intractable than the crisis of the 1990s.”

Last week, ECLAC estimated that the Cuban economy would contract by 6.5% in 2026, the worst in the entire region. This figure significantly revised the estimate from the end of 2025, which projected growth of 0.1%. At that time,it was just three weeks before the United States intervened in Venezuela, ousted Nicolás Maduro, and imposed the oil embargo that is proving devastating for the island’s economy.

Monreal also warns, in an analysis published this Wednesday in Substack, that the previous year ended much worse than the 1.5% decline projected by ECLAC, which is based on official data. The specialist outlines two scenarios, indicating a drop of between 9.1% and 12.5%, based on State Production of Goods and Services (PEBS), that is, everything produced by state-owned enterprises in any sector, given the unavailability of GDP figures.

The economist estimates that prices rose 15% in the best-case scenario and 20% in the worst.

Monreal compares the nominal value—current prices—of state production between 2024 and 2025, adjusting it for inflation. The economist estimates that prices rose 15% in the best-case scenario and 20% in the worst. To arrive at the final figure, he divides the GDP at current prices by the price indices, obtaining these declines that result in economic contraction far exceeding the regional agency’s 1.5%. continue reading

The poor PEBS figures for 2025 foreshadow a bleak outlook for the current year, which “significantly complicates the solution to the structural crisis.”

So far this year, and with a geopolitical context that does little to help, the indicators of the Cuban economy have only worsened, including the tourism figures published last week by the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei), which once again confirmed the catastrophe.

In the first quarter of the year, the country has lost almost half the number of tourists it attracted during the same period in 2025, a year that was very negative for the sector that has received the most budgetary resources in recent years. So far in 2026, 298,057 international travelers have arrived on the island, compared to 573,363 last year, a drop of 48%.

In recent years, the Cuban economy has alternated between stagnation and contraction, failing to achieve a sustained recovery since the pandemic and the failed internal reforms. The Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2025, published by ECLAC last February, ranked Cuba last in the region in GDP per capita after two consecutive years of economic decline.

According to an analysis of this yearbook by Cuban economist Elías Amor Bravo, at current prices, Cuba has a GDP per capita of $1,082 compared to a regional average of over $10,000. Even countries with more fragile economies, such as Haiti, surpass the island in this indicator. When adjusted for inflation (constant prices), the gap narrows, but Cuba still falls below the regional average.

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The Time Has Come

The Action for Amnesty 2026 Forum could be the starting point for a solid opposition front

March in favor of the release of Cuban political prisoners on the anniversary of 11J, in Miami, July 2024. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, Ariel Hidalgo, May 6, 2026 / The time has come for the Cuban people to be present and speak out. They need no permission to speak and act in their own home, for their consciousness has grown. It is time to make heard, loud and clearm, their naked yet luminous truth, for it needs no deceptive trappings of lies, both in the face of those who clamor for a false sovereignty and the powerful neighbor who ignores the Cuban people, claiming that the country’s devastation is due to a dysfunction of the nation itself and not to the model upheld by those who have oppressed the people under the pretext of a false representation.

Until today, at this crucial moment when the fate of our nation is to be decided, the voice of our people has not been heard, just as it was ignored in 1898 when peace was agreed upon between two foreign powers to determine the fate of our land in the Treaty of Paris, after a war initiated by Cubans themselves to achieve their independence. This omission cannot be repeated. In a conflict that has lasted for many years, the lives of so many brothers and sisters, as well as the sacrifices of so many warriors for peace, cannot be ignored.

But now the time has come to remove the gags and make our presence felt, without hatred or resentment, but peacefully demanding respect for all our rights.

But now the time has come to remove the gags and make our presence felt, without hatred or resentment, but peacefully demanding respect for all our rights

All the strands of the people are converging into a single voice, like a vibrant rainbow stretching from San Antonio to Maisí and from the coasts of Cuba to the world: union members, religious leaders, human rights activists, continue reading

writers, artists, feminists, environmentalists, lawyers, self-employed workers, and other sectors. This voice is not only clamoring for the freedom of political prisoners through the Action for Amnesty Forum 2026, founded on February 6th, but also for the dismantling of the social and legal structures that foster and perpetuate their imprisonment. And this forum is becoming the focal point for this entire spectrum of voices.

Because it is the integration of several alliances, such as D’Frente and the Council for the Democratic Transition of Cuba, composed of 34 organizations led by Manuel Cuesta Morua, as well as dissident academics Alina Bárbara López and Jenny Pantoja, and exiled activists such as Carolina Barrero, Ileana de La Guardia and Amelia Calzadilla. This forum must demand, massively before the world, the right to be recognized as the legitimate voice of the Cuban people, and not a spurious government that night after night receives, from many corners of the country, the resounding repudiation of the entire Cuban people.

The Forum could be the starting point of a solid opposition front, because if it called for “closing ranks” in the demand for amnesty, then now, in the face of the government’s declaration that political prisoners will not be released, we must close ranks to put an end to the context that led to this injustice, since this leadership leaves no alternative but to eradicate the political structures that generated the criminalization of dissent, an achievable goal if we take into account that there is also another authority in the people, the one that the leader of the Silk Road Revolution, Václav Havel, alluded to: “the power of the powerless.”

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Rubio Downplays the Photo Taken With a Military Officer in Front of a Map of Cuba

The Secretary of State says he wants to speak with Pope Leo XIV about sending humanitarian aid to the island.

Photograph provided by the U.S. Southern Command showing the commanding general, Francis L. Donovan, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a map of Cuba in the background. / EFE/Christopher Bermudez

EFE (via 14ymedio), Washington, May 5, 2026 — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed on Tuesday the fact that he was photographed with the head of the US Southern Command in front of a map of Cuba and the apparent possibility that Washington is preparing an imminent military offensive against the island.

“Cuba is within the Southern Command. You know, it’s the closest part,” Rubio said at an unusual White House press conference, explaining that the decision to pose with the map of Cuba during his visit to the military command headquarters was simply because there was one in the room where the picture was taken.

Southern Command is one of the ten unified combatant commands and its area of influence includes all Latin American countries, except for Mexico.

“As it happened, there was a map of Cuba, and I commented: it would be a good idea for us to take a picture in front of that map, since it’s the closest thing to the US that we have inside the Southern Command.”

The Secretary of State visited the main headquarters of this command today, located in Miami, his hometown. “On my second visit there, our chiefs of mission from across the Western Hemisphere were present. I was addressing them, and at that moment, I met the general who had just assumed command of Southern Command,” he explained.

“As it happened, there was a map of Cuba, and I commented: it would be a good idea for us to take a picture in front of that map, since it’s the closest thing to the United States that we have within the Southern Command,” added the head of US diplomacy. continue reading

Marco Rubio himself, the grandson of Cuban immigrants, has been one of the leading advocates for Washington to take a hard line against the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel. This includes the oil embargo that the Trump administration has imposed on the island since January, after the Pentagon captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and cut off the flow of crude oil from Caracas to the island.

At the same press conference, Rubio stated that he wants to speak with Pope Leo XIV about the possibility of Washington providing more humanitarian aid to Cuba, to be distributed by the Church, but stressed that Cuban authorities must allow the operation.

The US Secretary of State explained that the trip to the Vatican will serve to address the possibility of expanding cooperation with the Church to channel assistance to the island.

Rubio insisted that the United States has already tried to send aid but faces obstacles from Havana.

Similarly, he emphasized that the United States has already tried to send aid but faces obstacles from Havana, and recalled that in February the White House sent $6 million to be distributed through Caritas. “We are prepared to provide more humanitarian aid to Cuba (…) but the Cuban regime has to allow us to do so,” the Secretary of State stated.

Rubio added that his agenda with the Holy See, which begins this Thursday, will also include broader topics, such as the defense of religious freedom globally. “We have shared concerns about religious freedom, and we would like to discuss that with them,” Marco Rubio stated, highlighting the shared interests between Washington and the Vatican in this area.

In that regard, Rubio commented on Leo XIV’s recent trip to West Africa, where he addressed the issue of freedom of worship, a matter that has greatly concerned the Trump Administration in countries like Nigeria, where Washington bombed Islamist groups at Christmas in retaliation for the killing of Christians.

Amid the recent controversy, Rubio downplayed the tensions between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV, denying that the president had directly accused the pontiff. Since January, the United States has imposed an oil embargo as a pressure tactic against the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel, and last week Trump threatened to take immediate control of Cuba after the end of the war in Iran.

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