Translating Cuba – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Power Returns to Eastern Cuba After Partial Disconnection of the National Electric System

After 10 pm, the National Electric Union said, the system was restored, four hours after the Felton plant came back online

Once the Felton CTE, in Holguín, came back online, the Diez de Octubre plant in Nuevitas (Camagüey) was reconnected. / Adelante

14ymedio, Havana, 28 August 2026 / A new “oscillation” once again pushed the battered national electric system (SEN) to the brink this Thursday. A disturbance in the transmission lines caused the disconnection of the eastern region and knocked three thermoelectric units out of service, in an incident that authorities are investigating and that once again puts the spotlight on the growing instability of the Cuban grid.

According to the information released by government-aligned journalist Bernardo Espinosa, the National Load Dispatch reported an “extreme failure” that left the provinces from Holguín to Guantánamo separated from the SEN. As a result of the disturbance, unit 1 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez plant in Felton, unit 6 of the Diez de Octubre plant in Nuevitas, and unit 6 of the Antonio Maceo plant in Renté were taken out of service.

After 10 pm, the National Electric Union said, the system was restored, four hours after Felton came back online. From there, the Camagüey-based Diez de Octubre plant was reconnected, although authorities did not provide information about Renté.

In total, the SEN has already suffered seven complete disconnections so far in 2026, in addition to several large-scale partial separations

This is not the first time an “oscillation” has preceded a breakdown of the SEN this year. On March 21, just five days after the first national collapse of 2026, Cuba was once again plunged into complete darkness following a phenomenon officially described continue reading

using that same term. On July 14, the shutdown of Felton’s unit 1 caused, according to the official version, a “sharp oscillation in the system’s frequency” that ended in another total blackout.

In early August it happened again. As the country was still trying to recover from the year’s sixth national collapse, rain and electrical storms caused an oscillation that brought down the system once more – the second collapse in less than 24 hours.

In total, the SEN has already suffered seven complete disconnections so far in 2026, in addition to several large-scale partial separations. The first national blackout occurred on March 16. After that came the one on March 21, three in July – on the 6th, 10th, and 14th – and two consecutive ones in early August.

The recurrence of these oscillations takes on particular significance at a time when the Government is rapidly incorporating photovoltaic generation into a grid that operates with very little reserve and numerous damaged thermoelectric plants

These collapses are in addition to regional breakdowns such as the one that left western Cuba without electricity for nearly seven hours on August 1, affecting Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Havana, and Matanzas.

The recurrence of these oscillations takes on particular significance at a time when the Government is rapidly incorporating photovoltaic generation into a grid that operates with very little reserve and numerous damaged thermoelectric plants. Based on the information available, solar energy cannot be identified as the cause of Thursday’s incident, but the authorities themselves have acknowledged the problems involved in compensating for fluctuations without the anchor of the thermoelectric plants that are essential to ensuring the SEN’s stability.

Miguel Díaz-Canel admitted in March that instability was such that not all the energy available at solar farms could be used during the day. Its connection had to be increased or reduced, he explained, in order to regulate frequency and “avoid another blackout.” The president then announced the installation of battery systems intended precisely for that function.

The problem does not lie in solar energy itself, but in integrating it into a weakened grid. Traditional thermoelectric plants provide synchronous generation and help cushion sudden frequency changes, while photovoltaic farms depend on electronic inverters and their output can vary rapidly. Modern systems compensate for these fluctuations through batteries, electronic regulation, and sufficient generation reserve – elements that Cuba has only to a very limited extent.

In Cuba, where the loss of a single large unit can represent a significant share of all available generation, the margin for absorbing a disturbance is very limited

During the recovery from July’s blackout, the Director General of Electricity, Lázaro Guerra, specifically highlighted the importance of the batteries installed in El Cotorro (Havana), capable of “regulating the frequency” of the small systems that were forming before the national grid was reconnected.

Thursday’s incident now requires clarifying what happened first. Official information does not specify which line began to oscillate, what type of disturbance occurred, or whether the shutdown of Felton, Nuevitas, and Renté was the cause or the consequence of the instability. Nor has any information been provided on how much photovoltaic generation the SEN was delivering at that time.

These questions take on special relevance following the blackout in Spain and Portugal on April 28, 2025, whose investigation showed just how quickly oscillations, voltage problems, and cascading disconnections can spread through an electrical grid. In Cuba, where the loss of a single large unit can represent a significant share of all available generation, the margin for absorbing a disturbance is much smaller.

Translated by GH.

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Swiss Companies “Almost Never Manage To Collect” and Are Leaving Cuba

Trade between the two countries has collapsed and only multinationals, such as Nestlé and Roche, are holding on

Attendees at the Swiss Business Night 2026, held in Havana. / Swiss Embassy

14ymedio, Havana, August 28, 2026 / Swiss companies doing business with Cuba do not appear to share the enthusiasm of Auge, a private consultancy dedicated to business advice and development on the island. The firm recently celebrated its admission to the Swiss-Cuban Chamber of Commerce as a gateway to “new markets, alliances and opportunities,” but the organization it has just joined offers a far less promising picture of Cuba.

“When a Swiss company does business with Cuba, the state banks can issue payment orders, invoices or guarantees. But afterward, it almost never manages to collect,” said Ursin Mirer, president of this Chamber of Commerce, in a report published this Thursday by Swissinfo. The organization now has around 40 member companies, down from the 60 or 70 it once had. “Companies don’t feel protected,” Mirer summarizes.

This diagnosis contrasts with the tone Auge used when promoting its admission to the Chamber on June 10. “The world is full of opportunities. We keep weaving the network to bring them to our country,” the consultancy stated, presenting its membership as an opportunity to access B2B spaces, exchange forums and business databases that will allow it to “think big.”

“The report makes clear that the obstacles to trading with Cuba do not end in Washington”

The very headline chosen by Swissinfo, “Swiss trade in Cuba is being choked by fear of U.S. sanctions,” attributes considerable weight to Washington’s measures. European and Latin American banks, the outlet explains, avoid many operations related to the island for fear of exposure to the U.S. sanctions regime, a phenomenon known as de-risking. However, the report makes clear that the obstacles to trading with Cuba do not end in Washington.

“One of the causes lies in Cuba’s state-dominated economic system, and in the chronic shortage of foreign currency,” Swissinfo notes. That situation prevents continue reading

entities on the island from regularly meeting their debts to foreign companies. When asked what would need to change to win the business back, Mirer likewise does not mention only sanctions: “First there is legal certainty, followed by real protection for foreign companies and, finally, the currency issue.”

The numbers bear out the pessimism. Swiss exports of paper and cardboard to Cuba exceeded 2.7 million francs in 2025, but in the first half of this year they barely reached one million. Watch sales fell from 1.4 million to just over 357,000 francs (1 Swiss franc is equivalent to 1.23 dollars), and pharmaceutical sales stayed below 9,000 francs between January and June. Small and medium-sized companies, less able to withstand payment delays, have been scaling back their activity or leaving the Cuban market outright. Among the large companies that remain are Nestlé (food) and Roche (pharmaceuticals).

“One of the companies still holding on, Nestlé, has known the problem since the early years of the Revolution”

The outlook was considerably brighter just seven months ago. During a business gathering held in late January in Havana, Harold Hoffman, vice president of the Chamber, told the state broadcaster Radio Progreso that Cuba offered opportunities because its market was “quite promising,” something Swiss business owners needed to “take advantage of.” The event aimed precisely to encourage foreign investment and expand business ties.

The Swiss Embassy itself, under whose sponsorship the Swiss Business Night was held, was somewhat more cautious at the time. The focus of that meeting was Cuba’s energy crisis, described by the diplomatic mission as a “real operational vulnerability” that affects production, raises costs and “curbs investment.” The panel was moderated by Oniel Díaz Castellanos, co-founder of Auge and a collaborator with that business circle before formally joining the Chamber.

The difficulties in convincing Swiss business owners of the merits of the Cuban market are not new either. One of the companies still holding on, Nestlé, has known the problem since the early years of the Revolution.

Before “going far” in Cuba, the challenge can be much more basic: getting paid

In October 1960, Fidel Castro’s government nationalized three food companies with significant interests belonging to the Swiss multinational. After years of negotiations, Havana and Bern reached an agreement in 1967 for 18,039,000 Swiss francs to compensate for property, rights and other interests affected by the revolutionary measures.

Switzerland committed to purchasing 40,000 tons of Cuban sugar annually for eight years, with part of that revenue used to pay off the compensation. In this way, Cuba was able to compensate those affected while simultaneously securing a buyer, obtaining foreign currency and preserving an economic link with a major foreign company.

Almost six decades later, the words have changed less than the problems. Cuba needs buyers, investment and hard currency more than ever, while foreign companies are once again demanding guarantees to get their money back. U.S. sanctions make transfers far more difficult today and explain a significant part of the deterioration, but even business representatives interested in maintaining ties with the island point to internal problems that Washington cannot solve.

Auge, meanwhile, prefers to see the glass as half full. Its new membership, the consultancy stated, will help “invigorate the way we do things” and allow its clients to worry only “about going far.” The experience of some of its new Swiss partners suggests that, before going far in Cuba, the challenge can be much more basic: getting paid.

Translated by GH

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U.S. Sanctions Reach the Bank Account of the Cuban Medical Mission in Italy

This is the account where the specialists transfer most of their salary once they receive it from Italian entities.

Cuban doctors, in an image shared on social media by Calabria Governor Roberto Occhiuto. / Facebook/Roberto Occhiuto.

14ymedio, Madrid, August 28, 2026 – The account of the Cuban Medical Services Commercialization Company (CSMC) at the Italian bank BPER has been blocked since the end of July, and everything seems to indicate that this was a decision by the institution itself to avoid exposure to possible U.S. sanctions. This was reported by Diario de Cuba in an article signed by Annarella Grimal and published this Thursday, based on several knowledgeable sources, including two members of the brigade in Calabria.

These sources, who requested anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, told the independent newspaper that transfers made to CSMC by the doctors have been returned and that the Commercialization Company “cannot access the deposited money” or carry out transactions from the end of July through the account the state organization holds at Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna (BPER).

According to Diario de Cuba, Calabrian healthcare entities deposit the doctors’ pay directly into their personal accounts on the 24th of each month. In a mechanism common to other missions, the specialists submit their pay statements to the mission’s officials, who calculate how much they may keep, and then, “voluntarily,” as one of the healthcare workers admitted in an interview with Associated Press last July, they hand over most of the money to the Commercialization Company.

“Of what is received for overtime, only 28.5% is theirs,” the independent newspaper asserts

In the case of Calabria, according to Diario de Cuba, the base salary stipulated by the Italy-Cuba Agreement is 4,700 euros, of which CSMC allows the healthcare worker to keep a maximum of 1,200 euros. “Of what is received for overtime, only 28.5% is theirs,” the independent newspaper asserts. The remainder must be transferred “within 24 hours” to the account at BPER that is now frozen. continue reading

As Diario de Cuba concludes, the measure “interrupts the final stage of the extraction scheme through which the Cuban state company collects most of the doctors’ salaries in Italy,” something for which these brigades have been identified by the U.S. and several international organizations as forced labor.

Faced with this setback, which Diario de Cuba dates to between July 24 and 28, the head of the Cuban Medical Mission in Italy, Luis Enrique Pérez Ulloa, “called an urgent meeting” and issued instructions on what to do next. According to one source, he “asked them to hold on to the money until a solution was found,” while another source said they were also advised to “take the money to Cuba during their vacations and hand it over there to a person assigned to collect it.”

In Italy, meanwhile, the same outlet reports, “they are investigating everything that is happening with the Cuban mission and the money transfers.” It is more than likely that the account freeze is related to the most recent U.S. sanctions against entities directly connected to the export of Cuban doctors, imposed on July 23.

At that time, not only was the Cuban Medical Services Commercialization Company placed on the blacklist, but Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda and the director of the Central Unit for Medical Cooperation, Gretza Sánchez Padrón were also. These sanctions, which follow the path set by the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on May 1, do not apply only to the entities and individuals named, but also to anyone who conducts transactions with them, who may likewise face sanctions.

That is why the Italian bank has decided, as a precaution, to freeze the CSMC account.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Harina de Otro Costal: A Cultural Rehearsal for the Cuba We Dream Of

Trigueros, where the scattered pieces of a country can sit together again around the same table

“We Cubans are like fragments of a broken mirror, like pieces of a puzzle we still haven’t managed to put together,” one audience member summed up.

14ymedio, Dayana Prieto Espinosa, Trigueros (Huelva), August 27, 2026 / For eight days, a small town in Huelva became a meeting point for an increasingly scattered Cuban culture. From August 19 to 26, the XIII edition of Cubacultura brought together in Trigueros musicians, writers, filmmakers, actors, and visual artists living both on and off the island, in a program inevitably shaped by emigration, memory, and reunion.

At the center of nearly everything is Harina de Otro Costal, a space that resists easy categorization. The home of cultural manager Lourdes Santos and artist Juan Manuel Seisdedos was built around an old mill, whose machinery today shares space with works of art. Together with actress Laura de la Uz and photographer and writer Héctor Garrido, the couple make up the foursome that has, for thirteen years now, sustained a festival dedicated to building bridges between Cuba and Andalusia.

Walking into Lourdes and Juan’s house carries something of the fascination Federico García Lorca felt on discovering the Loynaz siblings’ residence in Havana. The poet ended up calling that Vedado mansion “my enchanted house.” Cuban artists today feel something similar as they wander through Harina de Otro Costal, where the mill’s old machinery shares space with paintings, books, beds for friends, and tables always set to stretch out the conversation.

By day, Trigueros seems like a town suspended in time – closed doors, silent streets, roosters announcing dawn and siesta alike. But once night falls, Harina de Otro Costal transforms everything. Visitors arrive from Huelva, Seville, other Spanish cities, and even Portugal, and the old mill fills with conversation, music, and accents.

This edition opened with three photography exhibits: Retrospectiva inconclusa (Unfinished Retrospective), by Alberto Díaz Korda; Otra música (Another Kind of Music), featuring photographs by Silvio Rodríguez; and Cuba iluminada: 10 años (Cuba Illuminated: 10 Years), by Héctor Garrido. The first night ended with La Dame Blanche, a project by Cuban artist continue reading

Yaite Ramos Rodríguez, blending hip hop, reggae, cumbia, and Afro-Cuban roots.

Film picked up next. Al oeste, en Zapata (West, in Zapata), by David Bim, offered a look at a Cuba far removed from postcard images, while A media voz (In a Half Voice), by Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez, placed emigration at the center of the screen. Built on the correspondence and archives of two friends who left the island and ended up living in different countries, the documentary speaks to loneliness, the unexpected trades of exile, motherhood, and that sense of having left parts of oneself scattered across different cities.

“We Cubans are like fragments of a broken mirror, like pieces of a puzzle we still haven’t managed to put together,” one audience member summed up. For a few days, Cubacultura made it possible to try to put some of those pieces back together.

Patricia Pérez during the presentation of ‘A media voz.’ / 14ymedio

Music carried that same experience into other registers. Habana Abierta took over the old Convent of Santa Catalina on Saturday. Founding members Alejandro Gutiérrez, Vanito Brown, and José Luis Medina – La Liebre – were joined by Roberto Carcassés, Ernesto Blanco, José Raúl Machado, Fernando Favier, and Pedro Pablo Rodríguez.

Theater arrived two nights later with Jacuzzi, by Yunior García Aguilera, performed by the author himself alongside Claudia Álvarez and Yadier Fernández. More than a hundred audience members followed a story in which friendship, love, fear, and politics all end up trapped in the same space. It was then that political debate jumped from the stage into the audience. A member of a Spanish organization sympathetic to the Cuban government took the floor to repeat against García the narrative used by State Security, which years earlier had tried to portray him as part of a foreign operation aimed at pushing a “soft coup” in Cuba.

Some attendees counted the miles they had traveled to attend the event and see ‘Jacuzzi.’ / Courtesy of Héctor Garrido

The attempt to steer the discussion toward that narrative met with a calm response. García thanked the audience for the debate and noted that a discussion like that would be practically impossible on the island, given censorship and the government’s monopoly on public speech. Laura de la Uz then spoke up: “You have the freedom in Spain to say everything you think. But we, as Cubans, have it too.”

The audience quickly returned to Jacuzzi. Comments focused on the emotion and sincerity of the piece, and some attendees mentioned the miles they had traveled to see it. The incident ended up demonstrating, almost inadvertently, one of the festival’s distinctive traits: no one needed to banish the dissenter or silence him in order to defend their own ideas.

Karla Suárez and Héctor Garrido presented ‘Objetos perdidos’ and ‘Habitación con cielo’ in an unconventional conversation, almost a gathering among friends. / Leo Garrido

Literature continued that same dialogue between departures and returns the following day. Karla Suárez and Héctor Garrido presented Objetos perdidos (Lost Objects) and Habitación con cielo (Room with a Sky) in an unconventional conversation, almost a gathering among friends. The stories seemed to move in opposite directions only to end up meeting. Garrido, who is Spanish, writes about Havana after choosing to live in Cuba; Suárez, a Cuban who emigrated very young, sets in Barcelona a novel in which seemingly insignificant bracelets end up holding the emotional chronology of years of farewells and reunions.

The closing fell to musician X Alfonso, who brought the event to a triumphant close alongside Ernesto Blanco and Frank Durand. Hundreds of people had reserved their tickets, and the venue had been sold out for two days beforehand. In a small format of guitar, bass, piano, and percussion, the musicians switched instruments with startling ease during a concert as intimate as it was powerful.

The closing fell to musician X Alfonso, who brought the event to a triumphant close alongside Ernesto Blanco and Frank Durand. / Courtesy of Héctor Garrido

There’s something of a Renaissance artist about X. It’s hard to confine him to music alone. Composer, performer, photographer, filmmaker, and cultural manager, he has managed to bring together disciplines that others tend to keep apart. That vocation perhaps finds its most visible expression in Fábrica de Arte Cubano, the space he has championed for years in Havana as a meeting point for the arts, even amid the shortages and obstacles that come with sustaining a project like that in Cuba.

Central to that endeavor has been Sandra Lusitana, his wife, producer, and cultural manager, one of those people capable of solving any setback. In Trigueros, she wasted no time joining the invisible machinery that keeps the festival running. But if anyone ended up taking ownership of the event, it was Mar, X and Sandra’s young daughter. With the ease children have for abolishing formality, she renamed several of those present and lit up every corner of Trigueros with her personality.

Laura de la Uz and Lourdes Santos during the closing. / Courtesy of Héctor Garrido

What makes Cubacultura unique isn’t only its program. It’s in the hospitality. In those who cook for the artists, wash a costume at the last minute, fix a technical problem, offer a beer, or make room around a table. In Lourdes and Juan Manuel, after more than half a century together; in Laura de la Uz, also revealed as a tireless cultural organizer; in the hospitality of Garrido and of a team – made up of Lola, Chari, Vito, Parra, Alfonso, and Antonio – for whom almost no setback seems impossible to solve.

For eight days, Harina de Otro Costal was exactly that: another way of understanding Cuba. One where artists from different fields can share the same program; where someone can defend their ideas without triggering an act of repudiation; and where the scattered pieces of a country can sit together again around the same table. It isn’t yet the Cuba that exists. But for one week, in an old mill in Trigueros, it came close to a rehearsal of the Cuba we dream of.

Translated by GH

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Spanish Publishers’ Guild Honors Cuban Writer Leonardo Padura

The jury highlighted “his ability to tell stories” that “delve into truth, guilt, friendship, and the weight of history on individual lives”

Leonardo Padura, at a book presentation in Madrid.

14ymedio, Madrid,August 27, 2026 / Cuban writer Leonardo Padura has been awarded the 2026 Liber Prize, granted by the Federation of Publishers’ Guilds of Spain (FGEE) to the “most outstanding Spanish American author.” In a statement released this Thursday, the organization reports that the jury “highlighted his ability to tell stories that, starting from research, delve into truth, guilt, friendship, and the weight of history on individual lives.”

They also praised, the statement adds, “a career of great international reach and the richness of registers and genres that characterize his work.”

The statement also includes remarks from Padura upon learning of the award, in which he expresses his “gratitude as an author and as a Cuban writer who lives and writes in Cuba.”

“It is a source of double satisfaction, because it represents recognition not only of me personally, but also of the culture to which I belong and in which I remain”

Speaking from Spain, a country whose nationality he has held since 2011 and where he spends long periods of time, the writer noted that he is the first Cuban to receive this prize: “It is a source of double satisfaction, because it represents recognition not only of me personally, but also of the culture to which I belong and in which I remain.”

He likewise stated: “It is not just any prize, nor is it awarded by just any institution, but by one that carries out the essential work of giving visibility to our work as writers and of managing the means by which continue reading

it can complete its life cycle – first by existing, and then by reaching the reader.”

For its part, the Prize organization noted that “through his writing, Leonardo Padura has turned Cuban reality into literary material of international reach.” His body of work, it continues, “marked by social criticism and a deep attention to Cuba’s recent history, offers a complex view of the memory, utopias, and disillusionments of several generations.”

Born in Havana in 1955 and winner of the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, the writer has received numerous honors, among them the Café Gijón, the Dashiell Hammett, the Islas 2000, the Brigada 21, the Barcino Historical Novel Prize, and the 2023 Pepe Carvalho Prize.

His career is especially notable for his series of detective novels featuring Inspector Mario Conde – whose most recent installment was Personas decentes (2022), set during the 2016 thaw in relations between the US and Cuba – and El hombre que amaba los perros (2009), about Trotsky and his assassin, Ramón Mercader.

His most recent work is Morir en la arena, featuring Rodolfo, a recently retired man in Havana whose life is marked by the war in Angola and by his father’s murder at the hands of his own brother. Before that, he published Como polvo en el viento (2020), centered on the drama of exile through several characters.

The award ceremony will take place on September 30 at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), during the Liber International Book Fair, an event aimed at industry professionals, which in 2026 will be held in Barcelona from September 29 to October 1.

Translated by GH

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Cubalex Reports 37 Homicides on the Island During July, the Highest Figure in Four Years

The NGO reports 19 deaths in state custody due to lack of medical care since January

The NGO points out that “the almost daily deployment of the state defense and security apparatus focused on containing the protests” and not on tackling insecurity / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, August 24, 2026 / In July at least 37 homicides were recorded in Cuba, more than one per day on average, the highest monthly figure since the legal advice center Cubalex began recording these incidents four years ago. Among these crimes were also nine femicides, according to the organization’s most recent report.

In its report, the NGO points out that the figures are only an undercount, so there could be more cases. “The absence of official information about criminality and violence constitutes a violation of the right to access public information and impedes the design of effective public policies to prevent these acts and protect victims,” it emphasizes.

In light of this, Cubalex reiterates “the need for the Cuban State to publish complete, reliable and periodic statistics on homicides, femicides, disappearances, suicides and other acts of violence, guarantee independent investigations and adopt effective prevention and protection measures with a human rights approach.”

Regarding gender violence, the NGO alerts that the figure recorded in July is a sign of “a scenario of defenselessness exacerbated by the evident vulnerability of women facing the dynamics of extreme gender violence and the lack of effective state protection mechanisms.”

The NGO alerts that the figure recorded in July is indicative of “a scenario of defenselessness exacerbated by the evident vulnerability of women.”

“Citizen violence reached its highest point since 2022,” the NGO said, adding that it also recorded four suicides last month, “the highest figure this year, indicating an underreporting of the mental health crisis in the country.”

In total, the organization recorded 168 incidents of violence and crime during the month. Most of the cases involved robberies and assaults with machetes or firearms, primarily targeting continue reading

people in vehicles and stealing electrical generating equipment.

The organization condemns in its report that, despite constant citizen complaints about the rise in crime in the country, “the almost daily deployment of the state defense and security apparatus focused on containing the protests over the blackouts and not on responding to the persistent increase in violence.”

In its report, it emphasizes that “the documented situation reveals a systematic incapacity of the State to guarantee the right to a dignified life for the civilian population.”

“The documented situation reveals a systematic inability of the State to guarantee the right to a dignified life for the civilian population.”

Cubalex also documented 199 protests during July, averaging more than six per day. These were concentrated toward the end of the month, coinciding with several consecutive days of prolonged power outages. “July 24 recorded the peak for the month with 25 events in a single day, while on July 11 there were 15, including two in prisons,” the report states.

In another report published this Monday, Cubalex states that, so far in 2026, a total of 19 deaths have been recorded in state custody “associated with a lack of medical attention or negligent care in Cuba.” Of that total, 17 correspond to people deprived of their liberty who were held in eight prisons across the country.

Four of those cases, a fifth of the total, were concentrated in the Las Tunas Provincial Prison, known as El Típico. As an example, it says, “last week the deaths of three inmates were reported in that prison, amid a serious situation of malnutrition, marked by the scarcity and poor quality of food, as well as by the lack of medical attention.”

“Last week, the deaths of three inmates were reported at that prison, amid a serious situation of malnutrition.”

Cubalex emphasized the case of inmate Yoandry Cutiño Oliva, 34, a native of the La Victoria neighborhood in Las Tunas: “He was in a critical state of malnutrition: he was approximately 5 feet ten inches tall and weighed only 70 pounds.”

Situations of risk are not limited to prisons. The NGO has also documented cases of people who died while in state custody in other locations, including a police station and a psychiatric hospital.

“The deaths that occur in state custody must be clarified through independent and impartial investigations that allow us to determine their causes and the circumstances in which they occurred,” the center denounces, adding that, as in other areas, “the lack of information, the absence of transparent investigations and the allegations of medical negligence prevent the establishment of responsibilities and favor impunity.”

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Without Electricity and Lacking Sound Equipment, Sílvia Pérez Cruz Sings to an Emotional Audience in Havana

The Spanish singer chose the San Francisco El Nuevo church for her concert.

Spanish singer Sílvia Pérez Cruz, at the San Francisco El Nuevo church in Old Havana. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Havana, August 26, 2026 – Sílvia Pérez Cruz’s velvet voice, capable of moving from flamenco to bolero, from jazz to fado, from copla to French chanson, from Mediterranean folk music to all the colors of the Americas, could not be appreciated in all its splendor this Sunday in Cuba. The concert she gave, free of charge, at the San Francisco El Nuevo church, in the heart of Old Havana, disappointed part of the audience because of the poor sound.

The Renaissance-era church had been deliberately chosen by the Spanish singer precisely because of its acoustics, so that she could offer a recital without electricity and by candlelight. But it did not work out. The cacophony eventually prompted the artist to use a microphone, although it did little to help. The smiles and tireless efforts of the ensemble, completed by the trio of Bori Alberto (bass), Marta Roma (cello) and Carlos Monfort (violin), did not quite succeed.

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With the church packed with people, spectators scattered across the floors, the doors open letting in all the noise from the street, and the heat activating hundreds of fans, it was difficult to hear. Her own songs, such as Verde o Mañana, and versions of others, much beloved in Cuba, such as Veinte años and La tarde gradually made their way through.

The cacophony eventually prompted Sílvia Pérez Cruz to use a microphone, although it did little to help. / 14ymedio

“For a reason, Havana’s orchestras give their concerts at the San Francisco de Asís convent or the San Felipe Neri Oratory, which do have good acoustics,” an expert explained to 14ymedio.

“You can’t understand anything at all, not a single word,” a woman complained before leaving the venue, barely half an hour after the concert had begun. Like her, many others left the concert early.

Another spectator said: “Everyone appreciates that someone like her comes to Havana under these circumstances and gives a free concert, but did no one do a sound check? Someone here didn’t do their job.”

The night before, those attending the private bar La Casa de la Bombilla Verde, in El Vedado, had better luck. There, Sílvia Pérez Cruz sang some “improvised songs,” as she herself described them on her social media, alongside her friend Roly Berrío, and she could be heard flawlessly. continue reading

The Cuban singer — who takes part in the Catalan artist’s song Nombrar es imposible from the album Toda la vida, un día, whose music video was filmed in Havana in 2022 — also attended the San Francisco El Nuevo concert and told 14ymedio about the difficulties of the performance.

The Renaissance-era church had been deliberately chosen by the Spanish singer precisely because of its acoustics, so that she could offer a recital without electricity and by candlelight. / 14ymedio

“It was a beautifully difficult concert. A lot of people, an immense space and a tiny bit of audio, just enough for the voice to float a little above the acoustic, unplugged instruments,” she said in her defense. For the artist, the experience “required a supernatural silence and stillness that was achieved, but which could be broken by little more than a fan moving against the heat.”

Berrío asserts that it was “a very loving concert. Added to the delicacy of the songs and the performance was a strong energy of desire, of wanting to be there, to share, to reach out. Giving and giving and giving. I enjoyed it very much and I will be grateful for it all my life.”

The applause from those who did stay until the end confirms that this was the majority sentiment. At the end of the concert, the artist asked everyone to join together for “one more,” and together they sang De qué callada manera, by Pablo Milanés.

Pérez Cruz herself has spoken of her “intimate relationship” with the Island, which she first came to know through her father, jazz musician Cástor Pérez, who, she says, taught her La tarde, by the legendary Sindo Garay, when she was four years old. She recorded a version of this bolero in 2010, when her father died. He was an expert in Cuban music, as well as a researcher and composer of habanera music, which became enormously popular in Spain beginning in the 19th century.

Another Cuban composer featured in her discography is Marta Valdés, to whom she dedicated an entire album, En la imaginación, in 2011, together with Javier Colina’s trio.

Born in Palafrugell (Girona), Pérez Cruz began her musical career as a member of Las Migas, an original female quartet that has received several Latin Grammy awards, shortly after graduating from the prestigious Catalonia College of Music.

The celebrated Rosalía also studied there, and she has stated that Pérez Cruz was always an inspiration to her and, in fact, invited her to collaborate on La rumba del perdón from her most recent album, Lux.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The El Vedado Project to Collect Garbage with Tricycles Fails

The vehicles the Government was supposed to provide have not arrived, nor has the “solinera” charging station.

Garbage trucks in El Vedado, Havana, in an image shared last July 22. / Pedro Garcés/Gente de Barrio

14ymedio, Havana, August 26, 2026 – Barely two months after it was announced, the El Rampeño local development project in Havana’s El Vedado, intended to collect garbage using electric tricycles, is considered a failure. Its own organizer, Pedro Garcés, president of the Rampa Popular Council, announced this on Tuesday on his active Telegram channel, lamenting that the objective “has not been achieved.”

The official cites several reasons, one of them being the lack of tricycles, which were supposed to be donated “by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and the central Government,” and the fact that the charging station they promised has not been built at the corner of 23rd and J streets. Garcés adds “the delay in the project’s search for alternatives to overcome the country’s own energy needs,” even while having “the support of some institutions and workplaces that help charge the tricycles.”

According to Garcés, the group held a working meeting “with the project’s leadership,” after which they hope “that what was agreed upon by both parties will soon be resolved.”

“The current reality is that we have a mostly clean council, but not the one we optimally need and deserve”

“The current reality is that we have a mostly clean council, but not the one we optimally need and deserve,” the official estimates, despite the fact that the flooding of waste has continue reading

clearly not spared an area once as well-kept as El Vedado.

Garcés asks residents “to double their vigilance and join the fight if they want to achieve a pleasant environment,” and he adds: “Social indiscipline continues to be a cancer that is slowly consuming us, and it is very sad that this is happening.”

And he assures: “Nothing and no one will prevent our Rampa Popular Council from continuing to aspire to be the cleanest, healthiest and most beautified council in the capital of all Cubans.”

Launched last July 1, El Rampeño faced difficulties from the outset, as 14ymedio documented. That same morning, very few containers were emptied, and only five of the 30 planned tricycles were operating.

“We still don’t know where it’s going; we’ve just started and we’re waiting for the delegate to say something,” one of the garbage collectors told a resident of the area at the time. The improvisation was evident, since even the workers themselves did not know where they were supposed to go.

The charging station that was to accompany the project, to charge not only those tricycles but also other vehicles and equipment, remains uncertain. According to initial reports, it would be built in part with funds from the 1% municipal tax on state and private companies. But residents were also supposed to contribute 100 pesos per household, although Garcés said the main payments would not come from individuals but from “entities of all kinds.”

During the past few weeks, the official, who is active in all kinds of community initiatives, has not spoken again about El Rampeño. Not even on July 22, when he reported that garbage had been collected from 15th to 19th streets and from G Street to the Malecón. That was done by ordinary trucks, not tricycles.

The news of El Rampeño’s fiasco, however, coincides with statements by China’s ambassador to Cuba, Hua Xin, who expressed satisfaction on Monday that his country is contributing to garbage collection in the Island’s capital. “Chinese electric tricycles are helping clean Havana,” he wrote on his social media accounts.

In light of what Garcés says, there are not enough vehicles for everything.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Everyone Against Everyone

Céspedes, Martí, Maceo, and Gómez also experienced rumor, defamation, and friendly fire.

Cartoon “Céspedes, immoral and bigamous”, published in 1870 as part of the satirical campaign of the Spanish press against Céspedes. / Clipping / El Moro Muza

14ymedio, Madrid, Yunior García Aguilera, August 22, 2026 / There are days when you open Cuban social media and get the impression that democracy is about to arrive, but it can’t because we’re all too busy attacking each other. The regime delightedly contemplates the spectacle. Now, some of the dirty work is done for free, from Miami, Madrid, Havana, or any corner with Wi-Fi. The official cyber-catfish barely have to lift a finger. We ourselves provide the fuel for the smear campaign.

Perhaps the problem is that we expect too much from our own people. We don’t want people capable of making mistakes, correcting them, irritating us, or disappointing us. We want heroes. But not just any kind of heroes. We want them like those we read about in history books, which were more like coloring books. We want them already cast in bronze, without compromising photos or chats. The bad news is that those heroes never existed.

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, for example, did not walk peacefully from La Demajagua to the pedestal. His own comrades deposed him as president of the Republic in Arms in 1873. Then came the restrictions, the surveillance, and the bitterness. His correspondence was intercepted, and even his ability to reunite with his family abroad was hindered. He ended up isolated in San Lorenzo, where he died months later facing a Spanish column, alone and possibly betrayed.

“Urgent. The truth about Céspedes’ double life”; “Now we know why they call him the Father of the Nation”

Attacks also circulated regarding his private life. Céspedes had children with Candelaria Acosta, known as Cambula, while he was married, and there were also suspicions that he financially favored his family, accusations against which he defended himself in letters.

Imagine if Facebook had existed: “Urgent. The truth about Céspedes’ double life”; “Now we know why they call him the Father of the Nation.” Céspedes probably wouldn’t have survived a week against continue reading

the algorithm.

Máximo Gómez wouldn’t have fared any better. For Spanish propaganda, he was the Dominican who had gone to Cuba to burn other people’s property. They called him “old Chinaman,” “fox,” a mercenary, and a dictator. If he attacked, he was bloodthirsty. If he maneuvered

Otero Alcántara Receives the 27,000 Letters That Did Not Reach Him While He Was Imprisoned in Cuba

“Despite not having the physical letters, in that moment of anguish, the energy and love of everyone reached me behind the bars.”

Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara at the event ‘Letters of Freedom and Solidarity’, this Tuesday in Miami. / EFE/Alberto Boal

EFE (via 14ymedio), Pablo Urbón, Miami / Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara received over 27,000 letters and messages of support on Tuesday in Miami, Florida, from Amnesty International (AI). These messages, sent to him by people from around the world during his five years imprisoned in Cuba, were presented to him at an event called Letters of Freedom and Solidarity held at El Espacio 23, the Miami art center where the Cuban artist is an artist-in-residence until September, having arrived in the U.S. city as an exile on July 18.

“Despite not having the physical letters, in that moment of anguish, everyone’s energy and love reached me behind bars. They nourished my heart and kept me believing that a better future is possible,” the artist wrote in his reply, dated August 22, which he read to the audience. “I thank you all for so much love; you saved my life,” he affirmed.

The letters and postcards come from Escribe por los Derechos [Write for Rights], Amnesty International’s annual campaign through which it selects a dozen cases in need of global solidarity. Otero Alcántara was one of those chosen in 2022, when he was serving a sentence on the island, and the organization declared him a prisoner of conscience.

“A letter may seem like a small thing, a simple gesture, but when a person is unjustly imprisoned, a letter can mean much more than a piece of paper.”

“A letter may seem like a small thing, a simple gesture, but when a person is unjustly imprisoned, a letter can mean much more than continue reading

a piece of paper,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of Research for the Americas, Astrid Valencia, who delivered the letters along with two colleagues from the organization.

“Each letter represents a person who decided to reaffirm the dignity, who decided to refuse to accept injustice as normal,” he added.

In prison, the artist recounted, inmates keep letters for years and reread them again and again. “Giving a photo, giving a letter, writing something by hand meant a reaffirmation of concern from one person to another,” he explained. It was, he added, a pact of friendship in a place where no one is anyone’s friend.

“I was literally convinced that if the artworks didn’t leave, I wouldn’t leave either,” he said, referring to the drawings he made in his cell and couldn’t take out: he would describe them over the phone to artist friends, who would interpret them on the outside. That exercise in communication and resistance, he said, was the true work.

As a token of gratitude, he gave AI a drawing of a door he made in prison, one of the ways, he explained, of seeking a way out: “they are light within the darkness,” Otero concluded, referring to the organization.

Otero Alcántara, co-founder in 2018 of the San Isidro Movement, a collective of artists and intellectuals against cultural censorship in Cuba, arrived in Miami after being released from prison on the condition that he abandon the Island.

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Cuba’s Foreign Minister Describes the Renewal of the US Embargo, in Effect Since 1960, as a ‘Genocidal Policy’

Like all his predecessors, Trump invokes his country’s “national interest” to justify his decision

Bruno Rodríguez accused the measure of “coming at the cruellest moment of the US offensive against Cuba in recent years” / X @BrunoRguezP

14ymedio, Havana, August 25, 2026 / Amid an unprecedented oil embargo against Cuba, US President Donald Trump extended the Trading With the Enemy Act (TWEA), one of the historical legal pillars used to maintain economic sanctions against the island, for another year, until September 2027.

Hours after the extension was published, Havana condemned the measure through Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who referred to the mechanism as “a genocidal policy that has been maintained against our people for more than six decades.” In a message on X, the Foreign Minister stated that “the renewal of the so-called Trading with the Enemy Act until September 2027 is not a minor administrative act, but rather confirmation that Washington persists in its aim to suffocate an entire nation. This extension comes at the most cruel moment of the US offensive against Cuba in recent years.”

The decision, which appears as Presidential Determination 2026-21, was signed by Trump on August 20 and reinforces the network of sanctions that Havana describes as an “economic, financial and commercial blockade”.

It reinforces the network of sanctions that Havana describes as an “economic, financial and commercial blockade”

“The continuation of the exercise of those powers with respect to Cuba for one year is in the national interest of the United States,” Trump said in the document issued from the White House.

The TWEA, in force since 1917, was applied to Cuba on October 19, 1960 by then-President Dwight Eisenhower in response to the nationalization of American properties after the triumph of the Castro Revolution in 1959. Two years later, President John F. Kennedy signed the decree that continue reading

turned it into an embargo prohibiting commercial and financial transactions with the island.

Over the decades, the policy was codified and strengthened through laws such as the Torricelli Act (1992) and the Helms-Burton Act (1996), which extended its reach to third countries and foreign companies. Since then, every U.S. president has annually renewed the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act with respect to Cuba.

The renewal of the embargo does not include new sanctions, travel bans, additional restrictions on remittances, or new Cuban companies on the US blacklist. However, it comes at a very different time than in previous years, as this year the White House has deployed a new sanctions program specifically targeting Cuban officials, state-owned enterprises, and strategic sectors of the Cuban economy.

Trump signed an order expanding sanctions against the Cuban government and authorizing the freezing of assets belonging to officials, state-owned companies, and financial institutions.

On May 1, Trump signed an order expanding sanctions against the Cuban government and authorizing the blocking of assets belonging to officials, state-owned companies, financial entities, and individuals linked to repression, corruption, or strategic sectors of the island’s economy.

This has impacted shipping companies and insurers that transport crude oil and commercial cargo to Cuba, which have canceled deliveries of fuel and other products. Furthermore, the financial embargo has also intensified, potentially leading to multimillion-dollar fines for foreign banks conducting business with Cuban entities, while companies from third countries are threatened with reprisals if they invest in or maintain a presence in strategic sectors such as tourism and mining, triggering a mass exodus of foreign companies from the country.

Havana has repeatedly denounced that US sanctions seek to “suffocate” the national economy, limit access to markets and technologies, and cause shortages of essential goods, with the aim of triggering a social explosion.

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Eloy Nebreda and the Call-Up of a Cuban Player in Spain’s Second Division Football

Throughout history, 15 footballers linked to Cuba have played in Spanish soccer’s silver category

Eloy Nebreda received his first official call-up with the Basque institution’s B team / Instagram

14ymedio, Any Lans, Matanzas, August 25, 2026 /
In soccer, as in life, great achievements rarely happen overnight. Eloy Nebreda was 11 or 12 years old when he began in Real Sociedad’s youth academy. This past August 14, at age 19, on the opening matchday of Spain’s Second Division, he received his first official call-up with the Basque institution’s B team.

The match took place at the Zubieta Sports City Stadium in San Sebastián. The opponent was Castellón, who ultimately won the match 1-0. Eloy sat on the bench for Real’s reserve team, wearing number 33, waiting for his chance to take the field – an opportunity that did not come this time.

But how did a Cuban footballer make his way into Spanish soccer’s second-highest level? First, we need to tell the story of how Eloy Nebreda became Cuban. Although the left-footed winger was born in the Basque Country, his Cuban roots run deep: “My mother is from Alquízar, a town about 60 kilometers from Havana that, curiously enough, was founded by a Basque. She was a dance teacher in Cuba and came to San Sebastián on an artistic tour. There she met my father and ended up staying. At first she kept up with dance, but it’s not easy to make a living from that here. She had to change jobs several times, making her way as best she could. Eventually she managed to start her own insurance company, which is no small thing. The truth is that, like a good Cuban, she has a real entrepreneurial spirit. I admire her enormously for everything she has fought through. To me, she’s a clear example of overcoming adversity.”

“Cuba is present in my life from the moment I wake up. Every morning, the first thing I see from my bed is a Cuban flag hanging in my room”

Although an ocean separates the Iberian Peninsula from a Caribbean island, the memory of his mother’s homeland never leaves him: “Cuba is present in my life from the moment I wake up. Every morning, the first thing I see from my bed is a Cuban flag hanging in my room. After that, Cuban food and music are with me every day. My mother has always been proud of her origins,” Eloy continue reading

points out.

For that reason, when the opportunity arose to represent the senior Cuban national team, the young winger didn’t think twice: “The Cuban Soccer Association contacted me back around March 2025 and told me they had been following me. They asked if I would be willing to play for the Cuban national team. It was a tremendous thrill, and of course I said yes. I’ve always felt very connected to Cuba, I’ve traveled there many times since I was a child, and besides, I was already in the process of applying for Cuban citizenship. That allowed me to get my Cuban passport in September and make my debut with Cuba in November.”

In recent years, Nebreda’s rise at Real Sociedad has been meteoric. In the 2023-2024 season, he had a fruitful loan spell with CD Vasconia, which allowed him to play in the top youth category, the División de Honor, at just 16 years old. During that time, he also made a favorable impression as a left back. In 2024-2025 he was part of Real’s main Under-19 squad and played three matches in the Fourth Division with Real Sociedad C. He spent the entire 2025-2026 season with that third team, this time in the fifth tier, where he responded with two goals in 22 matches. For 2026-2027, a possible debut with the B team in the Second Division cannot be ruled out, although he is most likely to see more playing time with the C team.

“I got to Real Sociedad through some training sessions and tournaments the club organizes with a lot of players”

“I got to Real Sociedad through some training sessions and tournaments the club organizes with a lot of players. At first there were a lot of us, but then the number kept dropping. After a LaLiga Promises tournament that the club had entered me in, they told my parents they wanted me to play for Real Sociedad, and when they told me, I couldn’t believe it, I was so happy. That’s when I realized I was starting to take steps toward fulfilling my dream. Right now, this club is like my second home because of the way they treat me, because here I feel valued and I know they have confidence in me,” he notes.

“I couldn’t tell you which single person has helped me most since I arrived. So I’m grateful to everyone I’ve crossed paths with,” he says, looking back on his time with the club. Even so, one person does come to mind: “I would like to have a special memory for Mitxel Badiola, a coordinator I had through the youth ranks, who sadly is no longer with us. He helped me believe in my own potential, and for that I will always be grateful.” That’s how the defender who arrived from CD Kostkas describes his bond with the San Sebastián side.

Asked about his role models on Real Sociedad’s first team, Eloy replies: “Well, since I’m a winger, I look more to players like Takefusa Kubo or Ander Barrenetxea, who are more the dribbling type, and I identify with them more.”

With Eloy Nebreda’s recent call-up, the count now stands at 15 footballers linked to Cuba in the history of Spanish soccer’s silver category.

“Since I’m a winger, I look more to players like Takefusa Kubo or Ander Barrenetxea, who are more the dribbling type, and I identify with them more”

Because of his ties to the Cuban clubs Olimpia Sporting Club and Real Iberia, some specialized sites attribute Cuban nationality to the Galician-born José Torres Mourelle, who played in the Second Division between 1928 and 1934 with Deportivo La Coruña.

Francisco Betancourt, whose father was Cuban and who is recognized as the first Black footballer to play an official match with FC Barcelona, played 102 matches in the silver division across different spells between 1934 and 1951 with Badalona, Sabadell, and Constancia.

Another player with a past at Barça who also played in the Second Division with Deportivo La Coruña in the 1940s was midfielder Joan Muntaner, born in Chaparra, Cuba, in 1916.

Other players born in Cuba who also passed through Real Madrid were forwards Chus Alonso and Enrique Ferrer, as well as goalkeeper Mario Inchausti. All three played in the second tier. Alonso did so in 1935-1936 with Real Valladolid and in 1949-1950 with Zaragoza; Ferrer played eight matches with Nacional de Madrid in 1935-1936; and Inchausti featured for Zaragoza in 1935-1936 and for Betis in 1940-1941.

Francisco Martín Arencibia, born in Alquízar, had his moment in the Second Division with Granada, between 1947 and 1949

An Atlético de Madrid legend, Francisco Martín Arencibia, born in Alquízar, had his moment in the Second Division with Granada, between 1947 and 1949. The Divino Calvo (“Divine Bald One”) played 33 matches during that stretch, scoring a couple of goals, and flirted with promotion in 1948-1949, when the Andalusians finished third in the standings.

A particular case is that of brothers José and Emilio Álvarez Gutiérrez. Both Cubans played for Cultural Leonesa during the 1974-1975 campaign, in which the team finished last.

In this millennium there is the case of goalkeeper Christian Joel Sánchez, son of fellow Cuban goalkeeper Lázaro Joel Sánchez. Christian Joel had 212 call-ups in the Second Division with Sporting de Gijón between 2018 and 2026. He played 16 matches in the competition, conceding 16 goals and keeping four clean sheets.

Defender Carlos Vázquez, known as Cavafe, and a Cuban national team international on more than one occasion, was called up three times by Alcorcón at the start of the 2020-2021 season.

Alberto Moleiro, whose father is Cuban and who is now a Villarreal star, made his name with UD Las Palmas in the silver category

Forward Alberto Moleiro, whose father is Cuban and who is now a Villarreal star, made his name with UD Las Palmas in the silver category. At that level, he took part in 75 matches between 2021 and 2023, with three goals and nine assists. And, as if that weren’t enough, he experienced promotion to the First Division with the Canary Islanders.

During the 2021-2022 campaign, forward Jorge Aguirre, now a Cuban international whose mother is from Havana, played one match in the silver division with Real Sociedad B, and eight with Mirandés in the other half of the season.

Another player called up for a Second Division match with Real Sociedad B was fullback Alex Carbonell, whose father is from Guantánamo, on November 12, 2021, although he did not see any playing time that time.

Translated by GH
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The Chinese Ambassador Boasts About Electric Tricycles Helping Collect Trash in Havana

China is helping keep the island afloat, but does not seem willing to become its financial lifeline

China’s ambassador to Cuba, Hua Xin, joined trash collection efforts in Vedado. / @EmbHuaXin

14ymedio, Madrid, August 25, 2026 / The hyperactive Chinese ambassador to Cuba, Hua Xin, highlighted on Monday the use of Chinese-made electric tricycles for collecting trash in Havana and stated that products from his country are contributing both to public services and to the island’s energy transition. The diplomat joined trash collection efforts in Vedado.

“Chinese electric tricycles are helping clean up Havana,” Hua wrote on social media. Chinese cooperation is reaching vital sectors at a time when fuel shortages, blackouts, and the economic crisis have left the capital’s basic services on the verge of collapse.

Hua also noted that he has visited other assembly and welding projects for trucks dedicated to urban sanitation. “Chinese products are contributing to Cuba’s public services and energy transition,” the diplomat said.

The aid has taken on great importance for an economy facing an unprecedented energy crisis and growing ever more dependent on foreign support. Havana and Beijing maintain close political and economic ties – a closeness both governments have repeatedly sought to emphasize in their recent statements. The Asian country has established itself as one of the few allies the island has left.

“Chinese electric tricycles are helping clean up Havana”

Cuba’s energy crisis combines the deterioration of aging infrastructure and decades of low investment with the difficulty of importing fuel, worsened this year by Washington’s pressure measures. China has responded with a series of donations. This month, a new shipment of 15,000 tons of rice arrived in Cuba, part of a 60,000-ton donation. Days earlier, the second phase of a donation of 5,000 photovoltaic solar systems had continue reading

begun.

The Asian country has also committed to a program to install 92 solar parks in Cuba, with a combined capacity of nearly 2,000 megawatts, and Xi Jinping approved assistance in January that includes 80 million dollars for the island.

Beijing has turned solar energy into the main instrument of its cooperation with Havana. Cuban imports of Chinese solar panels rose from about five million dollars in 2023 to 117 million in 2025. By the middle of this year, at least 49 solar parks built with Chinese technology were connected to the national power grid.

But Cuba’s power grid remains deteriorated, storage capacity is insufficient, and most of the energy generated by the solar panels is lost before reaching consumers. Even with the solar rollout, Cuba continues to face blackouts of more than 20 hours a day.

An analysis warns that China does not need Cuba to thrive: it is enough to keep it standing and maintain a relationship that is strategic and manageable for China

A BBC Mundo analysis published in May concluded that, despite the donations and Beijing’s growing role in renewable energy, its support for Havana remains limited. Experts consulted by the BBC noted that China is more cautious than Cuba’s other historic allies and does not intend to take on the role the Soviet Union once played as the island’s almost unlimited financier.

Another analysis from The Diplomat argues that every gap created by US sanctions – from fuel to energy infrastructure – offers Beijing an opportunity to increase its presence on the island. But the same analysis warns that China does not need Cuba to thrive: it is enough to keep it standing and maintain a relationship that is strategic and manageable for China. It sends rice when food is scarce, panels when electricity is scarce, tricycles when fuel is scarce, and assistance when infrastructure is at its limit, but it does not cover the enormous financial hole the island would need to fill to get out of the crisis.

The relationship with Cuba is part of the broader dispute between China and the US for economic and strategic influence in the region

The relationship with Cuba is no longer solely a bilateral matter between Havana and Beijing: it is also part of the broader dispute between China and the US for economic and strategic influence in the region.

Beijing has reasons to keep Cuba on its side. The island occupies a strategic position facing the US and constitutes one of China’s main political footholds in the Caribbean. That geopolitical component has gained more importance as relations between Cuba and the US deteriorate. In the round of sanctions Washington imposed on August 6 against Cuban officials and companies linked to military cooperation with other countries, it specifically singled out the Cuban military attaché in Beijing, whom it accused of taking part in acquiring military equipment from China.

Beijing responded to the sanctions on August 10, which, according to Washington, were related to Cuba’s military cooperation with China and Russia. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun called Chinese-Cuban cooperation “legitimate and transparent” and called on the US to lift its sanctions and the embargo.

Translated by GH
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Despite Sentences of More Than 10 Years in Prison, Dielectric Oil Thefts Spread Throughout the Country

The official press in Holguín, where 28 cases have been reported, calls these acts an “epidemic” and calls for a firm hand

Repair of a transformer following the theft of dielectric oil, in a file photo. / Granma

14ymedio, Madrid, August 25, 2026 / However much the Cuban regime has toughened penalties for the theft of dielectric oil, the thefts have not let up. In Holguín alone, according to a note published this Monday in the official press, 28 cases have been reported so far, although it is not made clear since when. These incidents, laments ¡Ahora!, “have become a kind of epidemic spread across the entire country, with apparent impunity, given the slowness with which the judicial proceedings opened against those who commit these serious crimes unfold.”

The provincial newspaper cites the most recent cases as examples, which have taken place, for instance, in the town of Levisa (in Mayarí), in the Las Torres neighborhood of the municipality of Urbano Noris, in Moa, and at the Farallones substation, which supplies Cayo Grande. In Levisa, the theft of this oil – which functions as an insulator and coolant and prevents equipment from overheating – affected not only that community but also Nicaro and Cabonico, and in Las Torres, according to ¡Ahora!, it left 69 homes without power.

From a substation in Moa, 3,000 liters of oil were stolen, which harmed 2,000 people “unable to enjoy the mere three hours of electricity that the national electrical system (SEN) can guarantee, as a consequence of the energy siege imposed by the bad neighbor to the North,” the official newspaper stated, referring to the crisis worsened by the energy blockade that the US has been carrying out since the beginning of the year. continue reading

Moa is, precisely, where the most cases have been recorded (7), followed by Mayarí (6), Urbano Noris (4) and Cueto (4)

Moa is, precisely, where the most cases have been recorded (7), followed by Mayarí (6), Urbano Noris (4) and Cueto (4). “Generally the wrongdoers operate in areas far from the towns, which makes their misdeeds easier, but all the territories report this type of impact,” says the official newspaper’s note, which laments that the remedies put in place by the authorities are not producing results.

“Restoring damaged perimeter fences, installing padlocks where warranted, sealing transformer valves, and increasing patrols and inspections of substations are among the measures established by the National Electric Union to prevent these acts of vandalism, which warrant a greater and more coordinated popular rejection given their impact,” they proclaim.

The note recalls that the theft of dielectric oil is classified in the Penal Code as the crime of sabotage and can carry sentences of between 7 and 15 years in prison, and up to 30 years or life imprisonment “if the sabotage causes serious damage or accidents.” In fact, ¡Ahora! notes, citing figures from the Electric Union, “one hundred percent of those convicted of crimes against the SEN received sentences of more than 10 years in prison.”

“The slowness with which the proceedings against the accused unfold, due to adherence to regulations, creates the illusion of impunity”

However, even this is not enough, the Holguín newspaper also acknowledges, stating: “The slowness with which the proceedings against the accused unfold, due to adherence to regulations, creates the illusion of impunity, which encourages the criminal and causes a sense of powerlessness among the population and discredits the police and judicial institutions.”

Two of the trials that have come to light, indeed, show the lengthy sentences. Last May 23, the Prosecutor’s Office sought 12 years in prison against a 36-year-old man accused of stealing 70 liters from a substation in Cayajabos, Artemisa. In July, another sentence of 12 years became known for the theft of oil in Bungo 2 (Contramaestre, Santiago de Cuba), which caused about 48 hours of power outages. But neither the threat of lengthy sentences nor the calls by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero to apply a “firm hand” seem to stop the phenomenon.

In Santiago de Cuba, the theft of dielectric oil from a transformer supplying Molecular Medicine last week not only left the facility affected but also forced the transfer of samples all the way to Granma for a patient in serious condition who needed urgent tests.

It was the most recent incident in the long series of similar thefts that has affected the entire island in recent months. The product, which functions as an insulator and coolant and prevents equipment from overheating, can be used as fuel, in place of diesel, and as a lubricant, which is why it has become prized on the street.

Translated by GH.

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Botswana Pays Cuban Doctors One-Quarter of the Salary It Pays the Regime

The mission even prohibits specialists from buying or driving a vehicle.

Cuban pediatrician in Botswana, in an image published by the Island’s state press. / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Madrid, August 25, 2026 – A Cuban doctor on a mission in Botswana receives only $1,000 a month out of the $4,000 that the country’s government pays Havana. That is, 24.4% of the total. The figures were revealed Tuesday in a report by the organization Prisoners Defenders (PD), which obtained access to the bilateral agreement.

According to this document, which, like others of its kind, is not publicly available, Botswana pays Cuba more than $4.2 million annually for 90 specialists. In addition, an internal document, signed just this past July 3, 2026, by the head of the brigade, Pablo Ricardo Betancourt Álvarez, confirms something that has also been documented in other missions: that Cuban healthcare workers are subject to restrictions on “travel, visits, friendships, overnight stays, use of vehicles, freedom of expression, and social life.”

“They live in a prison, and not in Cuba, but in Botswana,” said Javier Larrondo, president of Prisoners Defenders, who cites Betancourt Álvarez’s complete letter. It establishes “mandatory regulations for Cubans, despite their being residents of Botswana.” Among the provisions, the first is a restriction on the “collaborators” leaving their respective districts except for “professional or health matters, and always after prior consultation with the Head of the Cuban Medical Brigade in Botswana.”

Likewise, they are prohibited from “having people who are not part of the Cuban Medical Brigade present in their homes, whether visiting or intending to stay overnight”

Likewise, they are prohibited from “having people who are not part of the Cuban Medical Brigade present in their homes, whether visiting or intending to stay overnight, as well as brigade members staying overnight outside them,” a ban that extends to brigade members visiting the homes of Cuban residents outside the mission, and to activities other than those organized by the brigade.

Specialists on the mission are even prohibited from buying or driving a vehicle without express authorization. And so it goes, through ten regulations, all specifically detailed in the continue reading

Prisoners Defenders report, which adds that it has firsthand sources: professionals who were assigned to Botswana.

For the Madrid-based NGO, the Government of Botswana “cannot claim ignorance of the mechanism that takes away most of the remuneration from Cuban professionals,” because the agreement it signed with Havana “requires the Cuban side to issue a monthly invoice that expressly separates the amount intended for professionals from the amount transferred to Cuba.” Moreover, the African government itself informed its Parliament — on April 1, 2025, according to PD, as recorded in the parliamentary Hansard — of the contractual rate for each doctor: 3,500 euros per month, equivalent to $4,094.65 at the official exchange rate.

And not only that, but administrative documents from Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone also record remuneration. The example cited by PD consists of reports dating from March 2020 onward, which allocate up to $800 for 18 specialist or coordination positions and were submitted to the Botswana Ministry of Finance.

“State complicity therefore cannot be attributed to ignorance of the payment mechanism”

“State complicity therefore cannot be attributed to ignorance of the payment mechanism,” Prisoners Defenders asserts, accusing Botswana of “acting in complicity with the exploitation, as it finances, controls, directs, and with full knowledge implements the Cuban slave system.”

The organization points out that the initial annual ceiling established in the Agreement, equivalent to $2,889,200, should correspond to 62 positions — 46 specialists and 16 auxiliary professionals — but, it continues, in 2025 the national coordinator of the brigade stated that the actual contingent consisted of 90 professionals. Based on this number, PD applies the contractual rates signed with the Cuban regime and concludes that the actual contingent represents an estimated cost of $350,500 per month; “that is, $4,206,000 annually: $1,316,800 above the initial ceiling.”

This deployment, the NGO observes, “therefore requires an addendum, a budget increase, or another financial instrument that the Government of Botswana has not made transparent to the public or to its Parliament, the Botswana Hansard.” What provision allowed this increase? PD asks in a series of questions that it says the Botswana state must answer.

These include questions such as “What did the Ministries of Health and Finance know about the withholding [of salaries], passport confiscation and the disciplinary regime?” “Did Botswana know about or authorize the July 3, 2026 order?” “How many professionals have requested to end their mission, been replaced, repatriated or declared deserters?”

“Why is there no independent, confidential reporting channel outside the control of the Cuban leadership?”

At the end of its report, the NGO calls on the Botswana government to “publish the complete agreement, all its addenda, budget authorizations, monthly invoices and payments made, protecting only legitimate personal data.” It also calls for each professional to be paid directly “the full amount corresponding to their work, subject only to ordinary and transparent taxes, and prohibiting forced salary transfers to third parties.”

Finally, it urges the government to “suspend and investigate” the implementation of the mission chief’s July 3 order, “which is incompatible with the Constitution and labor legislation of Botswana”

It also asks the Botswana government to interview the aid workers individually, “without the presence of Cuban coordinators,” and to guarantee that they retain their passports, contracts and all their freedoms. Finally, it urges the government to “suspend and investigate” the implementation of the mission chief’s July 3 order, “which is incompatible with the Constitution and labor legislation of Botswana.”

The publication of this report on Botswana comes one week after Prisoners Defenders launched a digital platform aimed at collecting data and information related to “the regulations, payments, and reported violations” involving Cuban medical missions around the world over more than six decades.

According to PD, it is “a verifiable country-by-country dossier,” containing historical data, contracts and regulations, and it “allows users to investigate, compare and download information about Cuban medical missions in 209 countries and territories.”

According to the NGO, it “distinguishes between active, inactive, canceled or pilot missions” and contains information related to approximately “1,185 protected testimonies and 217 public testimonies” from 60 countries, which have been examined by the United Nations, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and Human Rights Watch.

In recent months, and under pressure from the United States, Honduras, Guatemala, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago suspended their medical cooperation with Cuba or revised the terms.

Before that came the cases of Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and El Salvador, which ended their programs between 2018 and 2019. In Brazil, it was Cuba that decided to withdraw the mission after the government of Jair Bolsonaro demanded that doctors receive directly the entirety of the salaries paid by the country. More than 8,000 professionals then returned to the Island.

In 2019, the missions in Bolivia and Ecuador also ended, fmollowing political changes in both countries. El Salvador ended its medical cooperation with Cuba during that same period.

For Cuba, the hemorrhaging of its main source of income is significant. Prisoners Defenders, for example, estimates that medical missions generated nearly $5.976 billion in 2021, based on official Cuban statistics and international trade data.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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