Translating Cuba – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

University Entrance Exams Are Suspended and the School Year Will End a Month Early

The decision is due to the “complex situation” Cuba is facing because of the lack of fuel and transportation

Official discourse wants to erase the image of the previous school year, marked by the students’ rebellion against Etecsa’s rate hike. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, May 20, 2026 – The unsustainable energy conditions Cuba is experiencing have claimed a new victim: education. On one hand, the school year, which will end approximately one month earlier than planned; on the other, university entrance exams, which are being suspended. Education Minister Naima Ariatne Trujillo Barreto spoke about the first issue when she appeared alongside Higher Education Minister Walter Baluja García this Tuesday on the television program Mesa Redonda. Classes had been scheduled to end on July 24, as announced last September at the start of the school year, but they will now end gradually between June 15 and June 30.

“We are going to continue giving the response that educational institutions are accustomed to giving because of the implication they have for society,” she said, trying to calm families worried about leaving students without a place to be or activities for such a long time. The decision was made, she said, after conducting a “deep and sensitive human evaluation” of the “complex situation” the country faces because of the lack of fuel and the resulting difficulties, such as transportation shortages.

“There has been a need to reduce in each territory, according to its particularities, enrollment, semi-boarding services, and in-person attendance days. Long distances are being walked by children, their families, and teachers,” she added. In addition, to stop rumors about moving exams forward, she said the process would be addressed progressively.

“Long distances are being walked by children, their families, and teachers”

Another of the most drastic measures taken by the ministry is the elimination of university entrance exams, a measure presented by the head of the sector, Walter Baluja García. “The admissions process will be based on the grade point average or academic index students obtained during their pre-university studies,” he said. In addition, the official emphasized that all applicants “have their place guaranteed.” The assignment process will determine which one.

It is precisely the students who are going to enter university who will be those given priority in secondary education, Trujillo clarified. The minister said that twelfth grade — as well as sixth and ninth grades, since they are terminal years for each cycle — would be protected, relying on the already known “didactic and pedagogical variants,” referring to what already occurred during the pandemic, only under worse conditions, since even technological support has diminished.

Evaluations will be adapted to the systematic monitoring teachers carry out of their students’ progress. “A good teacher accompanied by the families of their own group can probably achieve greater comprehensiveness than an exam that, ultimately, if someone studies hard on the last day, does well and is not the result of what was really learned throughout the entire school year,” she stated.

The minister also recalled the difficult conditions teachers and students face daily. “After a night without electricity, getting the child to school, how to attract him, the class itself is a challenge. And for teachers, who suffer just the same, without electricity or with the problem of whether they have water or don’t have water at home, continue reading

concentrating on teaching the children has been a huge challenge.”

Trujillo spoke of sensitivity, commitment, sacrifice, and even “daily heroism.” At some moments, she said, between 10,000 and 20,000 students during this school year were unable to attend classes depending on how remote their places of residence were. “For each one we have had to find alternatives,” she added.

The final details of the school year will be wrapped up progressively. On one hand, graduations will take place in neighborhoods, schools, or municipalities. “We cannot limit the possibility of that tremendous event that achieving a grade level implies,” the minister argued. As for special education, whose logistical demands are greater, it will end this month, while schools linked to the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) and the Ministry of Culture will also finish very soon, although without a fixed date.

Schools, she insisted, will remain open in order to keep the most vulnerable students protected “and guarantee that they do not lose connection with their skills.” Children, the minister said in one of the most surprising phrases of the presentation, “have an exceptional opportunity on this Island full of opportunities and dreams that we all must protect.”

Schools, she insisted, will remain open in order to keep the most vulnerable students protected “and guarantee that they do not lose connection with their skills”

The Higher Education Minister recalled the difficulties of this school year “in which a large part of the university community has faced serious problems regarding connectivity and transportation, making it necessary in many cases to adopt hybrid and distance-learning modalities, with adjustments according to each person’s conditions and special attention to final-year students.”

There was no mention, however, of the days of conflict last March, when around fifty students staged a sit-in protest on the steps of the University of Havana and a police cordon prevented others from joining them. Baluja García went to speak with them to calm tensions, although discontent remained constant for several weeks over the hybrid system decreed for the current academic year. Students demanded suspension because of the impossibility of following normal learning, among other demands that went further, although in the end the authorities managed — once again, as during the protests over Etecsa’s 2025 rate hike — to resolve the situation behind closed doors.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Marco Rubio to Cubans: “Trump Is Offering You a New Relationship With the United States”

The Secretary of State sends a video to the population on the day when the criminal indictment against Raúl Castro will be officially announced

Screenshot of Marco Rubio’s video addressing Cubans, released by ‘Axios’. / Axios/ State Department

14ymedio, Madrid, 20 May 2026 / Anticipation is running high on a Cuban Independence Day that will see the US indict former president Raúl Castro, news that was already more than expected after it was leaked days ago, but which comes with a new development first thing in the morning. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has addressed some direct words to the Cuban people in a video obtained by Axios, the outlet that the regime has turned into its new bête noire because of the leaks it has published on relations between the two countries and the Donald Trump Administration’s plans for the Island.

“President Trump is offering a new relationship between the United States and Cuba. But it must be directly with you, the Cuban people, not with Gaesa,” Rubio says in the message, later published by the State Department.

Judging by the leaked content, Rubio does not say anything he has not said before, although what is new is that he addresses the population directly and does so on a date of special historical importance, both for the opposition, which regards it as its national holiday, and for the regime, which has demonized a date it identifies with the celebration of a “bourgeois republic.”

The US Secretary of State, who is of Cuban origin, aims all his fire at the military conglomerate Gaesa, which he repeatedly accuses of stealing. “The real reason you have no electricity, fuel or food is because those who control your country have looted billions of dollars, but none of it has been used to help the people,” he says. In his speech, he highlights the contrast between “the wealthy elites” who run Gaesa and a population living through “unimaginable hardships.”

“Cuba is not controlled by any ‘revolution’. Cuba is controlled by Gaesa,” he insists. The official also recalls that Washington has promised “one hundred million in food and medicines for you, the people,” which will be distributed by “the Catholic Church or charitable organizations,” without the government conglomerate being able to keep them in order to “sell them in one of its stores.”

Marco Rubio draws on the estimates he has used in recent days, according to which Gaesa has billions of dollars in assets, although a recent analysis by The Economist stated that the successive failures of recent years — especially in tourism — have ended up leaving its funds at no more than one billion, pushing it into a situation close to bankruptcy. The military conglomerate owns 70% of the Cuban economy — as the Secretary of State recalls — but that would be precisely what has led it to figures in free fall. continue reading

“The real reason you have no electricity, fuel or food is because those who control your country have looted billions of dollars, but none of it has been used to help the people”

“The real reason you have no electricity, fuel or food is because those who control your country have looted billions of dollars, but none of it has been used to help the people,” Rubio says in the speech, adding that “the only role played by the so-called government is to demand that you continue making ‘sacrifices’ and to repress anyone who dares to complain.”

However, a better future would await the population, he says, if change succeeds. “You, the ordinary Cuban, [have] the right to own a business, whether a gas station or a media company. A new Cuba where citizens can vote for their leaders and complain about a failed system, without fear of going to prison or being forced to leave the Island.”

Rubio believes that there is nothing that makes Cubans different, since they “have reached the top of practically every industry in every country, except one: Cuba.” And he argues that this “is not impossible.” “All this exists in the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and even just 90 miles away, in Florida. If it is possible to have your own business and have the right to vote near Cuba, why is it not possible in Cuba?”

The message comes to heat up the day on which the US Department of Justice will announce a criminal indictment against Raúl Castro over the shooting down of the planes belonging to the Brothers to the Rescue organization 30 years ago. The agency has summoned the media to Miami’s Freedom Tower at 1 p.m., where Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason A. Reding Quiñones, will be present to make the announcement.

“Raúl has cultivated that loyalty every day which does not bend before either fatigue or hardship. That is why we love him as the steadfast patriot who teaches us to defend the Revolution, with tenderness and with a rifle, with study and with intelligence, with heads held high and hands extended”

The event will be historic for many Cuban exiles, although everything suggests that the US is trying, with this, to continue exerting pressure so that the regime gives way, and that it will not enter Cuba to arrest the ninety-something Castro. It is precisely his advanced age that the Union of Young Communists refers to today, having made public a statement — with an obvious whiff of a show of support on this day — to call for a march celebrating the 95 years that the former leader will turn on 3 June.

“Raúl has cultivated that loyalty every day which does not bend before either fatigue or hardship. That is why we love him as the steadfast patriot who teaches us to defend the Revolution, with tenderness and with a rifle, with study and with intelligence, with heads held high and hands extended,” the text reads. In the call, with references to the concept of “not giving up,” it asks that “this 95th be the enormous embrace for a dear friend and a leader proven in every trial.”

The statement has been circulated by an official press which, coincidentally, also today publishes a declassified US document showing that officials from the Federal Aviation Administration warned of the possible shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996. “Someday the Cubans will shoot down one of these planes,” they wrote.

“The declassification comes amid a new political and media escalation surrounding that case,” says the text published by Cubadebate, without making any mention of Castro and the indictment that is on its way.

Translated by GH

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A Political Prisoner From the 11J Protests Dies ‘In a Severe State of Malnutrition’

Six people imprisoned following the 2021 protests have died in state custody

Ernesto Brieva Sempé was serving a five-year sentence of correctional labor without confinement for sedition / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, May 18, 2026 / Political prisoner Ernesto Brieva Sempé, 52, arrested after the massive Island-wide protests of 11 July 2021, died in custody in the early hours of May 13 at the Combinado del Este high-security prison in Havana. The information was released this Monday by the legal advice center Cubalex, which reported that the man was “in a severe state of malnutrition,” although it noted that, to date, “it has not been possible to verify the official cause of his death.”

The man, who, according to Prisoners Defenders (PD), had diabetes, was tried along with 14 other protesters who took to the streets in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre during the 11J protests and who faced long prison sentences for the crimes of assault, contempt, public disorder and incitement to commit crimes.

In the case of the man from Brieva Sampé, he was serving a five-year sentence of correctional labor without internment for sedition – handed down in January 2023 – although the prosecution had originally requested 12 years in prison .

Sources close to the matter confirmed to Cubalex that Brieva Sempé’s sanction had been revoked, but that he was still serving time in the Combinado del Este prison for “continuing to publicly express his critical stance toward the system.” The NGO also reported receiving information that the funeral “took place under heavy surveillance by State Security agents.”

The funeral “took place under heavy surveillance by State Security agents”

The advisory center demanded an independent and impartial investigation into his death, as well as guarantees of protection for people deprived of their liberty and an end to reprisals against those who exercise their right to freedom of expression.

Since 2021, six political prisoners from the July 11th events have died in state custody. The most recent case was that of Luis Miguel Oña Jiménez, just 27 years old, who died continue reading

last February three days after being released on parole, when his health was already critical, from the Panama prison for HIV patients in Güines, Mayabeque province.

Although it did not occur inside a prison, organizations such as PD and the Cuban Prison Documentation Center (Cdpc) held the authorities responsible for the death.

Oña Jiménez, who was serving a 12-year sentence for sedition, suffered a stroke (a decrease in blood flow to a part of the body), which left him unable to move his mouth, hands, or feet. He was subsequently transferred to the Julio Trigo López Hospital in Havana. According to Prisoners Defenders, he was given a terminal diagnosis and sent home on parole, where he died shortly afterward. Despite his condition, he did not receive adequate medical attention following such a serious neurological event, nor did he receive treatment for his underlying health conditions.

There he was “evicted” and sent home on parole, where he died shortly afterwards

Prior to that case, another prisoner from the 11J massacre who died in custody was Manuel de Jesús Guillén Esplugas, who died from a beating at the Combinado del Este prison on December 2, 2024. An activist with the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu), Guillén was serving a six-year prison sentence for filming and disseminating videos of the anti-government marches.

Prior to this, the death of Gerardo Díaz Alonso, 35, was reported at the Canaleta high-security prison in Matanzas. The cause of death for the man, who was serving a 14-year sentence, was a heart attack.

Months earlier, Yosandri Mulet, sentenced to 10 years in prison for “sedition,” had died in the Julio Trigo hospital, where he was admitted on August 22, 2024 after jumping off the Calabazar Bridge in Havana during a protest.

Likewise, Luis Barrios Díaz, who died “due to negligence by the authorities” on November 20, 2023. In his case, it was reported that he was admitted to the infirmary of Prison 1580 in San Miguel del Padrón, Havana, and later transferred to La Covadonga Hospital, also in the capital, “to receive specialized care.” At the hospital, doctors warned that Barrios Díaz’s admission was “essential” due to his poor health, but prison authorities ignored them. They returned the prisoner to his cell, claiming they “did not have enough fuel to guarantee constant surveillance” of the inmate, a decision that, according to the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, “led to the worsening of his health and subsequent death.”

So far this year, Cubalex has documented 20 deaths in custody in the country’s prisons. Meanwhile, the CDPC has recorded 128 deaths since January 2023.

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Sherritt Suspends Plans To Leave Cuba Despite US Sanctions on Moa Nickel

The Canadian mining company still has its operations paralyzed and admits that there are “serious financial risks”

The state partnership with Sherritt is a key source of foreign currency for Cuba / ‘Cubadebate’

14ymedio, Havana, May 19, 2026 / The Canadian company Sherritt International announced Tuesday in a statement that it is suspending its plans to dissolve its interests in Cuba, including the joint venture Moa Nickel SA, which produces nickel and cobalt in mines in Holguín. The conglomerate is thus reversing the decision announced just 12 days ago to cancel all joint venture activities on the island with immediate effect and repatriate its employees.

According to a statement released at the time, Sherritt cited the executive order signed by US President Donald Trump on May 4, which targeted non-US citizens and entities doing business on the island. Just hours after the Canadians made that decision public, the US State Department added Moa Nickel to its sanctions list—along with Gaesa and the president of the military conglomerate, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera.

The company announced that it halted the measure on Tuesday following “further consultations with advisors, stakeholders and relevant government authorities, and in light of additional information now available to the corporation.”

The measure was halted after “further consultations with advisors, stakeholders and government authorities”

The Toronto-based company said it would maintain the suspension of its direct involvement in joint venture activities in Cuba while talks continue on how to respond to the expanded US sanctions.

Sherritt stated that it was also evaluating “a potential opportunity to preserve the value of the company,” but stressed that “there is no guarantee that continue reading

such measures or transactions will be completed in a timely manner.”

It also warned that, unless the situation is resolved, the company faces serious operational, financial, and legal difficulties, including its ability to meet debt covenants.

In its May 7 statement, Sherritt noted that it had not been “formally designated under the executive order. However, such a designation could occur at any time.” The mere issuance of Trump’s order, he continued, created “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.”

Sherritt noted that it had not been “formally designated under the executive order. However, such a designation could occur at any time.”

According to its explanation, the US 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 at the time that advisors would continue to evaluate the implications of the measure, something ultimately taken into account for Tuesday’s announcement.

According to Cuban legislation, when there are contracts signed between a company with Cuban state participation, neither party can withdraw without taking certain prior steps, including prior notice.

The state partnership with Sherritt is a key source of foreign currency for Cuba, although the latest figures from the Canadian company reported that things on the island were not going well.

In February, the company had announced that it was pausing its mining operations

In February, the company announced it was pausing its mining operations and putting its processing plant in Moa, Holguín, on hold. The decision was made after receiving notification that planned fuel deliveries to Moa would not be met, and the timeframe for resuming deliveries was unknown.

Furthermore, last year’s earnings were significantly lower than anticipated. Sherritt expected to extract between 31,000 and 33,000 tons of nickel last year, but only managed to produce 25,240 tons, nearly 17% less than projected for 2024. For cobalt, they had projected 3,300 tons but only reached 2,729 tons by year’s end, a decrease of approximately 15% year-over-year. Additionally, Sherritt’s revenue in the second quarter of 2025 fell to $43.7 million, down from $51.4 million in the same period of 2024.

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The Cuban Regime Responds to the Psychological Warfare of the U.S. With Feigned Calm

The state-run ‘Cubadebate’ describes certain media outlets as part of the “propaganda apparatus” serving the Trump Administration

Visit of a Russian frigate to Havana in July 2024, the kind of encounter that the U.S. considers intolerable. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, May 19, 2026 — The new U.S. sanctions have no practical effect on those targeted, Miguel Díaz-Canel mocked in a post published early Tuesday morning. “Among the leadership of our Party, State, Government, and military institutions, no one has assets or property to protect under U.S. jurisdiction. The U.S. Government knows this perfectly well,” the Cuban leader emphasized on his X account.

In his view, this is so clear that “there is not even any evidence to present,” but “the anti-Cuban rhetoric of hatred tries to make people believe such evidence exists in order to justify the escalation of its total economic war,” Díaz-Canel said. The Cuban president thus downplayed the new measure by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac), which on Monday added eleven senior political and military officials from the Island to its sanctions list, including three ministers.

The leader believes that the decision, since it has no real implications, is instead part of a series of measures aimed at increasing pressure on the authorities through threats against third parties. “The executive order that persecutes and threatens third parties wishing to sell fuel to Cuba, and that extraterritorializes the embargo to unprecedented levels, penalizing companies that want to invest in Cuba or simply provide us with basic goods such as food, medicine, hygiene products, or others, is immoral, illegal, and criminal,” he added.

“The executive order that persecutes and threatens third parties wishing to sell fuel to Cuba, and that extraterritorializes the embargo to unprecedented levels, penalizing companies that want to invest in Cuba is immoral, illegal and criminal”

Díaz-Canel states that his Government will continue “denouncing, in the strongest and most forceful way, the genocidal siege that seeks to strangle our people,” who are being subjected to an “act of genocide that must be condemned by international organizations,” while also calling for its “promoters” to be prosecuted “criminally.”

That denunciation campaign is consistently carried out by Cubadebate, which for weeks has lamented that U.S. media outlets echo leaks as another continue reading

element of pressure on the regime. This Tuesday, in one of the digital outlet’s increasingly frequent analyses of the role of the press, it focused on publications by Axios, which since February has been leaking information from State Department sources: from the secret talks revealed in February — and admitted by the Cuban Government a month later — to the most recent reports from this very weekend about the alleged purchase of drones, without overlooking the visit of CIA director John Ratcliffe to Havana.

Cubadebate believes that Axios helps shift the debate from the political to the military sphere, so that “the narrative no longer revolves around dialogue between States, but around communication directed toward those whom the U.S. considers the ‘real power.’” The state-run outlet analyzed, using the Zeeschuimer tool (for data capture), the 1,642 reactions generated on social media by the latest Axios article and concluded that they fall into several groups. The largest group sees the U.S. outlet as a “State propaganda apparatus,” accounting for 32% of comments.

They are followed by those expressing distrust toward the Trump Administration, with 26%; those who believe Cuba is the true party under threat and has the right to defend itself, 22%; those who think the groundwork is being laid for an attack on the Island, 12%; and, as a minority group at 8%, those who fear Cuba may indeed pose a threat. Cubadebate admits that comments may sometimes contain one or several premises and that these are not mutually exclusive, although it does not mention that a common trend on social media is to respond critically to what one dislikes and justify it, while support tends to be more passive and limited to a simple “like.”

Be that as it may, the scenario in Cuba is so open and generates so much debate that articles in the U.S. press appear almost daily, although none can determine what will happen. This Monday, Politico published a column by correspondent Nahal Toosi, of Iranian origin and an expert in international relations, in which the reporter argues that the idea of a military attack on the Island is now more likely than months ago, since the Trump Administration sees no progress in a sanctions strategy it had considered capable of producing quick results.

“The initial idea regarding Cuba was that the leadership was weak and that the combination of intensified sanctions enforcement, an oil blockade, and U.S. military victories in Venezuela and Iran would scare Cubans into making a deal. Now, the Iran situation has gone off course and the Cubans are proving much tougher than initially thought. So military action is more on the table than before,” said one official involved in the discussions.

Toosi’s source maintains that the Cuban regime is more monolithic than expected and not even aware of the severity of the economic situation. “They respond to U.S. pressure by offering ideas such as allowing foreign investment in hotels when their real problems are structural, including their crumbling electrical grid,” the source emphasized.

The correspondent also states that Trump might gain little domestically from such a move, since the strongest enthusiasts of military action are already among his supporters

Although the Pentagon continues drafting possible plans, nothing has been decided. A former White House official with extensive knowledge of Cuba warned that the popular support the regime may still retain should not be underestimated and that things may not be so simple. “There are true believers there,” he said. The correspondent also notes that Trump might gain little domestically from such a move, since the strongest supporters of military action are already among his base. Nevertheless, the pressure continues unabated, as reflected in the constant stream of related news.

The situation will continue tomorrow, when the formal indictment against Raúl Castro for the 1996 shootdown of the Brothers to the Rescue planes is expected to be announced. This Monday, the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council published a report examining possible scenarios arising from the situation, highlighting its firm conviction that Castro will not be arrested, unlike what occurred with Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

“The United States Department of Defense will not carry out an operation to extract Raúl Castro from the Republic of Cuba,” they state, adding that the most likely outcome is that the general will die at home. “The Trump-Vance Administration will not condition Cuba’s commercial, economic, financial, military, political, and social reintegration on the extradition of Raúl Castro. They will request it, but they will not enforce it. Therefore, the indictment will be performative,” the document adds. In summary, Washington continues to prioritize psychological warfare.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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High-Ranking Officials of the Repressive Apparatus and Three Cuban Ministers Are the Latest To Be Sanctioned by the US

The list includes the Ministry of the Interior, the General Directorate of Intelligence, the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), and several Army commanders.

The Cuban Council of Ministers, presided over by Miguel Díaz-Canel, in an archive photo. / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Madrid, May 18, 2026 / As announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the list of those sanctioned in Cuba by the Donald Trump administration has expanded considerably. As of Monday, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department, 11 more high-ranking officials—two of them from the Ministry of the Interior—and three institutions have been added: the Ministry of the Interior itself, the General Directorate of Intelligence, and the National Revolutionary Police (PNR).

Among them are the Ministers of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy; of Communications, Mayra Arevich Marín; and of Justice, Rosabel Gamón Verde, as well as the President of the National Assembly, Esteban Lazo; the head of Military Counterintelligence of the Armed Forces, José Miguel Gómez del Vallín (from Las Tunas); and the former minister Roberto Morales Ojeda (from Cienfuegos), currently a member of the political bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

Also included are three other high-ranking military officers, Joaquín Quintas Solá (from Colón, Matanzas), Eugenio Armando Rabilero Aguilera and Raúl Villar Kessell, and the director and deputy director of the PNR, Oscar Alejandro Callejas Valcarce and Eddy Manuel Sierra Arias.

In the same statement today, OFAC also announced that it is extending the permit to trade Russian oil for another month, until June 17.

The US penalizes all of them 11 days after doing so with the Business Administration Group (Gaesa); its president, General Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and the state-owned company that operates in the Holguín mines, Moa Nickel SA. At that time, in a statement, the State Department explained the designation of these “subjects” within the framework of 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 measure has since produced a seismic shift in foreign companies with interests in Cuba, starting with continue reading

Moa Nickel’s partner, the Canadian transnational Sherritt, which on May 7 announced the suspension of its activities on the Island and the immediate repatriation of its employees, including the Cubans it has employed in Canada.

Esteban Lazo, president of the National Assembly of People’s Power, is one of the newly sanctioned individuals. / Canal Caribe

The fear of sanctions was also the reason given by the Spanish airline Plus Ultra for withdrawing from the agreement it had with Cubana de Aviación, leaving the state-owned airline without a route to Madrid.

This Sunday, the shipping companies CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd confirmed the same decision, which could mean a 60% loss of maritime traffic for the island, according to estimates by two experts in a Reuters report.

In the same statement today, OFAC also announced that it is extending the permit to trade Russian oil for another month, until June 17, from which any person or organization related to Cuba, as well as Iran, North Korea and the occupied territories of Ukraine, is again excluded.

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Havana Chronicles: Along Carlos III Street and Towards Ethiopia

Without internet, without public transport, and with appliances destroyed, Havana seems to be returning to its harshest origins.

The Ministry of Domestic Trade has a Knowledge Management Center. What kind of information will be stored there? / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, Yoani Sánchez, May 18, 2026 — “You have to go straight on Carlos III,” a weary-looking state employee tells me when I ask for directions to shop that repairs electric pressure cookers. With no internet on cell phones and phone calls hampered, people have returned to using the most reliable “street map”: asking around. On the wide avenue that runs through Central Havana, that’s easy, because there’s always some activity. The difficult part is distinguishing when someone answers with just anything, without knowing, and when they actually have reliable information.

While I make my way toward Reina Street, a señora, sitting in a doorway tells me she has “Alprazolam, the good stuff,” a powerful benzodiazepine that sells in this city as if it was candy for children. An old man, who has placed some broken objects on the sidewalk to attract customers, gives me further directions, and a stray dog keeps glancing at the vendor selling bread and suckling pig, stationed with his cart on a corner, begging him to throw at least a scrap of skin.

Carlos III Avenue has become a strip of makeshift stalls. The softdrink bottling plant that fascinated me with its sounds in my childhood is closed. The garden of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, which I loved to wander through, has been fenced off for decades. The cultural center where I learned to draw and first stepped onto a stage barely plans any activities. But the worst is the Plaza, reconverted into a market in dollars as devoid of goods as it is of customers. From its dark interior, neither voices nor laughter ever emerge.

The worst part is the Plaza, transformed into a dollar market as lacking in goods as it is in customers. / 14ymedio

I walk past a sign advertising the Domestic Trade Knowledge Management Center (CGC). “What kind of information will be stored there?” I wonder. Will they teach us how to share our experiences regarding how many peas we consumers in the rationed market get every few months? Will the innovation they promote have to do with how to make smaller, worse-quality bread each day to sell through the ration book? What will future scholars find when they open the archives of this institution? Will they be as empty as the shelves of the corner store in my neighborhood?

These days I’ve been thinking about the planes of Ethiopian. I’ve never been there, but my fascination with every drop of water, every glimmer of light, and every step I take must be very similar to that of those early Homo sapiens, surprised and frightened by so many things they didn’t understand. I chase clouds with my eyes to see if it’s going to rain in my neighborhood so I can fill a bucket, I calculate how long cooked beans will last without refrigeration, and I gauge where the shade will be when I set off on the long walk from anywhere in the city to my house.

I have seen scenes in the streets of Havana that I only knew from ancient history books when they described the harsh survival of our ancestors.

The cave attracts the cave. I’ve seen scenes in the streets of Havana that I only knew from ancient history books, when they described the harsh survival of our ancestors. A couple of young men hunting laurel pigeons with clubs and sacks, just to eat. A young woman preparing, with sacks and bags, a space in a tree trunk to spend the night. A family lighting firewood right in the street to finish cooking their lunch. We’re all becoming somewhat feral, a little wilder every day.

We haveve returned to the origins of basic survival. Given that the elements of modernity that surrounded us are becoming ever more unstable, the wild animal that we are at our core emerges: the reptile that dwells within us. We go out during the day to try to “solve” whatever problems we can. At night, we must avoid setting foot on the street: the sidewalks are dark, muggings are on the rise, and recreational options are so depleted that it’s not worth paying thousands of pesos for round-trip transportation to a private club or bar.

We’re all becoming a little more feral, a little wilder every day. / 14ymedio

The appliance repairman doesn’t mince words. “This rice cooker is beyond repair,” he tells me minutes after I finally find his small shop on Carlos III Street. A power surge after the electricity was restored sealed the fate of a pot we’d bought more than three decades ago, when my son was born. “It lasted quite a while,” I tell myself, and I leave it for spare parts with the busy entrepreneur, who already has a long line of customers. The blackouts leave a trail of victims in their wake: deep fryers, coffee makers, and pressure cookers that perish from “excessive current” when the power returns.

With my hands now free, I continue along Reina Street to seek the almendrón taxi stand at Fraternity Park. I hope that one day these people will have their own routes with comfortable and efficient buses that run throughout the city. If they’ve managed to create the most effective way to get around Havana under the worst conditions, they deserve to move up. With inspectors harassing them, police demanding ever-larger bribes, fuel shortages, and the old vehicles from the mid-20th century that they drive, the boteros have escaped the clutches of centralism. Many passengers complain about their prices, but we should be grateful that they exist.

You Havana residents are now experiencing what we have been suffering for years.

I climb into the “pisicorre,” an old Willys Jeep painted canary yellow. The young man who sits next to me is from Bejucal, a small town in what is now the province of Mayabeque, once famous for its brass bands. “You Havana residents are now experiencing what we’ve been suffering for years,” he tells me bluntly. “I can’t remember the last time I came home to electricity,” adds the man, who claims to be one of the few in his community who still commutes to the Cuban capital every day for work.

The scene he describes is depressing. “My wife has become an expert at lighting the charcoal for cooking, and many nights we take turns fanning the girls [ages five and eight]” so they don’t get bitten so much by the mosquitoes. What happens in his house is replicated throughout the town, and Bejucal “has become empty because those who didn’t leave through the Darién Gap left under the Law of Grandchildren.” I try to imagine what that place, which dazzled me with its festive rivalry between La Ceiba de Plata and La Espina de Oro, must be like at night, but I can’t quite picture it.

I arrive at my destination. I pass by Estancia Street to buy some basil. The vendor wraps the small bunch in a newspaper. The main headline is about the 2026 Economic and Social Program. Although only a few days have passed since its publication, the phrase seems like something from a distant past, when the State believed it had control over the present and future of every Cuban.

The reptile inside me stirs. It has heard the hum of the Ministry of Transportation’s generator. It’s the signal for the blackout, and it knows it will have to climb 14 flights of stairs. At the 10th floor, I close my eyes, hold onto the handrail, and imagine climbing a tree, crooked and with beautiful foliage, somewhere in the Ethiopian plains.

Previous Havana Chronicles:

Sleeping Is Also a Privilege in Havana

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

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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The Suspension of Service by CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd Affects 60% of Cuba’s Maritime Traffic

The decision by the French and German shipping companies is a consequence of new U.S. sanctions and will mainly affect trade with China

The decision will affect maritime trade with the entire world. / TC Mariel

14ymedio, Madrid, May 18, 2026 — International shipping companies CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd, French and German respectively, officially confirmed this Sunday the suspension of their shipments to and from Cuba. The information had unofficially emerged last Friday, when sources from both companies informed the Spanish agency EFE, and according to estimates by two experts in a Reuters report, it could mean the loss of 60% of maritime traffic for the Island.

“Following the U.S. decree issued on May 1, CMA CGM has decided to suspend its bookings to and from Cuba until further notice,” the French company said in a statement distributed by email this Sunday. The shipping company indicated that it is closely monitoring the situation and will adapt its decisions to current regulations.

The German company Hapag-Lloyd did the same, stating through a spokesperson that the suspension was due to “the compliance risks associated with the U.S. president’s May 1 decree.”

Specialists also point to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean as heavily affected by the suspension of these shipments

The transport of goods from China would be the most affected by the order, according to sources consulted by Reuters, which warned of the enormous drop in transactions. In a context of generalized shortages such as the one Cuba is experiencing, combined with the oil blockade, the risk is enormous. Specialists also point to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean as heavily affected by the suspension of these shipments, although “all global maritime transport to Cuba would be affected.” According to data from continue reading

the National Office of Statistics and Information, in 2024 — the latest year with complete data — international maritime trade totaled 62.3 million tons.

The decree signed by Trump on May 1 expanded U.S. sanctions on trade with Cuba to include “any foreign person” operating in the sectors of “energy, defense and related materials, metals and mining, financial services or security of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy.”

Barely a week later came the departure of the Canadian mining company Sherritt International, which had been present on the Island for the past three decades, both in nickel and copper mining operations and in Energás wells in northern Cuba. The company made the decision, which also involved the departure of three board executives, out of fear of being placed on the SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury Department, a directory that includes sanctioned individuals, companies, or vessels, implying financial blocking and prohibiting Americans from doing business with them.

The sanctions will begin to be applied on June 5, which is why most companies doing business in Cuba are currently evaluating the situation. “No banking entity with a presence or interests in the United States will want to assume the risk of intermediating payments involving a designated [by the United States] party, regardless of the nationality of its client,” said Ignacio Aparicio, managing partner of the law firm Andersen and head of Cuban affairs, consulted by the newspaper El País for a report — similar to one published days earlier by ABC — evaluating the impact on Spanish companies.

According to the report, Meliá, which is under close scrutiny because of its extensive ties with the State, for which it manages 34 hotel establishments, remains silent “due to the high level of uncertainty, although they consider that their activity is not initially included within the five affected sectors.” Although the United States pointed to the specifically mentioned areas, it also refers, in any case, to any sector of the economy.

“Cuba’s Foreign Investment Law, enacted in 2014, establishes a joint venture framework that prevents unilateral withdrawal. Any divestment would in most cases require the approval of the Cuban State”

An anonymous businessman contacted for the report believes the sanctions are a clear warning to leave Cuba. “You can only do business with Gaesa [the military conglomerate that controls the country’s economy], which also has not paid its bills for some time. And now, if the United States discovers that you do business with a Gaesa company, it can fine you,” he argued. The Madrid-based newspaper estimates Spanish presence at more than 60 operations, especially in the tobacco industry, financial services, and wholesale trade, representing investments totaling 442 million euros. In addition, there are 70 hotel management contracts between Gaesa and companies such as Meliá and Iberostar, as well as Roc, Barceló, Valentín, NH, Blau, Axel, and Sirenis.

However, Aparicio warns of one thing. “Cuba’s Foreign Investment Law, enacted in 2014, establishes a joint venture framework that prevents unilateral withdrawal. Any divestment would in most cases require the approval of the Cuban State, turning the process into a prolonged and potentially costly negotiation.” In his view, the most likely outcome is “a slowdown in new investments, corporate adjustments aimed at reducing direct exposure, the search for alternative currencies to the dollar, and greater generalized caution throughout the financial chain.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Las Tunas Responds to Increase in Theft From Its Electrical System With ‘Chemical Traps’

After more than 11 crimes so far this year and thousands of residents affected in the province, authorities are intensifying security measures

Officials at the Yariguá transformer workshop in Las Tunas. / Facebook/Empresa Eléctrica de Las Tunas

14ymedio, Havana, May 18, 2026 — In Las Tunas, authorities have decided to strengthen security measures to prevent the theft of dielectric oil and transformer parts, in response to the rise in criminal activity in the province. In the municipality of Jesús Menéndez alone, 11 cases have been recorded so far this year, according to Anisley Santiesteban Velázquez, technical director of the province’s Electric Company, speaking to the state media Periódico 26.

The package of measures consists of reinforcing security at the 44 substations in the region considered “vulnerable.” It includes technical decisions such as repairing perimeter fences and installing nighttime lighting powered by solar panels, as well as increasing surveillance by assigning four security officers to each substation.

The most striking measure, and one the authorities themselves have publicized as a warning, is the installation of so-called “chemical traps.” This measure was not explained in detail “for security reasons,” although officials did say it is being carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior.

Warnings published by the Las Tunas Electric Company describe these traps as “the presence of dangerous substances or protective mechanisms that may cause harm to those attempting unauthorized access.”

Official warnings describe these traps as “dangerous substances or protective mechanisms that may cause harm to those attempting unauthorized access”

According to international technical literature from Strategic Directions, the principle behind these traps consists of introducing unique tracers in microscopic quantities into the fluids. These markers allow chemical analysis or simple forensic tests to determine the illicit origin of lubricants and provide judicial evidence against theft and illegal distribution networks.

Warning published by the Las Tunas Electric Company. / Facebook/Empresa Eléctrica de Las Tunas

The repair of perimeter fences at the 44 substations responds to the deterioration and damage these structures had suffered, which facilitated illegal access. The installation of nighttime lighting seeks to prevent perpetrators from acting under cover of darkness. continue reading

Regarding the security officers, Santiesteban Velázquez told the press: “We have the possibility of hiring security and protection agents for the substations. We are taking advantage of this opportunity to call on anyone interested in participating,” although the technical director did not detail the conditions of the offer.

Scarcity, necessity, and the opportunities of a black market that pays what the State cannot guarantee have multiplied thefts of fuel and dielectric oil in recent years. These acts directly affect the population but also endanger the perpetrators themselves, who in some cases have been injured or killed during the theft.

“They are leaving several communities, several towns without electricity”

The Periódico 26 article cites as an example the case of 4,000 residents in the Las Tunas locality of Yariguá, who have remained without electricity for four days due to these thefts, compounded by the national electricity generation deficit. The technical director identified these crimes as one of the main causes of the disruptions: “They are leaving several communities, several towns without electricity,” he said, urging residents to organize themselves. “I call for a collective and popular effort to protect our substations.”

Since last April, the Cuban Government has intensified criminal prosecution for any damage related to the national electrical system, when Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz demanded a “heavy hand” against these crimes and increased efforts to combat the theft of fuel and dielectric oil from transformers.

In that context, the state press emphasized, as Periódico 26 also recalled today, that crimes against the national electric power system are considered “sabotage,” classified in the Cuban Penal Code with penalties that, depending on the severity of the act and its consequences, can reach up to 30 years in prison, life imprisonment, or even the death penalty.

This same Monday, in the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa, the arrest of the shift supervisor of the photovoltaic park in the locality of Barreras was reported after he stole more than 40 meters of electrical cable. The theft paralyzed the operation of 24 solar panels, which for several hours stopped generating electricity for the national power grid.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Prosecutor’s Office Seeks Up to 13 Years in Prison for Three Women Who Protested a Blackout in Santiago de Cuba

Mileidis Maceo Quiñones, Edilkis León Giraudis and Oneida Quiñones are accused of public disorder and property damage

Pot-banging protests are becoming increasingly common on the Island, sometimes even during the daytime. / Facebook/Lara Crofs

14ymedio, Madrid, May 18, 2026 — Three women who were arrested at the end of 2024 in Palmarito de Cauto, Santiago de Cuba, are facing lengthy prison sentences for a protest that erupted during a prolonged blackout. Prosecutors are seeking 13 years in prison for Mileidis Maceo Quiñones, eight for Edilkis León Giraudis, and five years for Oneida Quiñones, all accused of public disorder and property damage.

The information was provided by Elba León Giraudis, sister of one of the accused, to Martí Noticias, which described the Prosecutor’s Office demand as “madness.” “They received the prosecutor’s request about a month and a half ago, but they still haven’t been notified of the trial date. They still haven’t set a date,” she said.

On November 15, 2024, tensions were running very high in eastern Cuba due to the slow restoration following the first major collapse of the national electrical system (SEN) on October 18, when a failure at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas caused the massive blackout that was the first of several.

“They received the prosecutor’s request about a month and a half ago, but they still haven’t been notified of the trial date. They still haven’t set a date”

The protest began “because of an all-day blackout, like every day when they cut the power at 7 in the morning, so many hours pass and they don’t turn it back on, and mothers have no way to cook for their children. It started in the area called Barrio Guano, which is a central street leading from that neighborhood toward downtown Palmarito, where the town square is, and then they turned back,” a local resident told the independent press at the time.

Dozens of people came out banging pots and demanding electricity. Police officers and State Security agents arrived at the scene, along with local government officials and Communist Party members, who unsuccessfully tried to calm the unrest. “The people became outraged because they were beating Mileidis’s mother, and people started throwing stones and shattered the window of an Operational Guard patrol car,” a witness told Martí Noticias at the time. Mileidis Maceo Quiñones, who is also an activist with the Patriotic Union of Cuba, and her mother were arrested, the latter being an elderly woman who is diabetic and disabled.

Edilkis León Giraudi and a first cousin of Maceo Quiñones, named Rafael, who was 17 years old at the time, were also arrested. The young man was detained a day later when authorities summoned several youths from the neighborhood to the local cultural center for questioning. Although charges were initially brought against him, they were ultimately dropped, reportedly because of his age.

Oneida Quiñones remains under house arrest awaiting trial, while Mileidis Maceo and Edilkis León are being held in the provincial prison. Their families have repeatedly tried to request more favorable measures so the women could remain at home until their responsibility is determined, but all attempts have failed, and they have now spent a year and a half imprisoned without knowing when the trial will take place.

The latest report published by the Madrid-based NGO Prisoners Defenders places the number of political prisoners in Cuba at 1,260

The latest report published by the Madrid-based NGO Prisoners Defenders places the number of political prisoners in Cuba at 1,260, ten more than the previous month. The same report, which warns of intensified repression, puts the number of people detained on the Island for protests against the regime at 2,048 from July 1, 2021 through the end of April 2026.

In addition, 23 prisoners were added to the list in the past month, although 13 people were released from prison, mostly due to completion of their sentences. Regarding the release of 51 prisoners announced by the Government in March and the “humanitarian pardon” of 2,010 inmates initiated in April, the organization states that both processes were marked by “deception, opacity, and the deliberate exclusion of the majority of political prisoners.”

In the first case, 27 of the 51 prisoners were political prisoners, while in the second process there were none, according to the organization’s records.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Exile Will Provide “The Necessary Capital To Rebuild Cuba,” Says Jorge Mas Santos

The businessman tells ‘El País’: “What Trump did with Venezuela was good for Venezuela, but it won’t work in Cuba, because it’s a failed state.”

Jorge Mas Santos, president of the Cuban American National Foundation and owner of Inter Miami. / X/Jorge Mas

14ymedio, Madrid, May 17, 2026 / Jorge Mas Santos, president of the Cuban American National Foundation and one of the most important figures in the Cuban exile community in Miami—son of the historic Jorge Mas Canosa —asserted in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País that “the capital needed to rebuild Cuba is not difficult to raise” and that the exile community will play a decisive role in any eventual transition. “If 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80 billion dollars are needed, whatever the figure, it won’t be a problem,” he stated.

Mas Santos is known for his business and sports profile—he owns Inter Miami and is the main shareholder of MasTec—and as a leader in exile, he stated that he is aligned with Washington regarding a possible change on the island. “Everything is happening very quickly. We’re talking about months,” he said regarding the transition. “I estimate before the end of summer. Maybe not even then. We’ll see changes in weeks.”

He asserted that Cuba’s economic reconstruction must be preceded by the establishment of the rule of law. “We have to start practically from scratch, because the system and the political structure are not working,” he said, adding that there is capacity outside the island to contribute to the reconstruction. According to Mas, it would be “super easy” if there were a legal framework favorable to the market and foreign investment.

He argued that the Cuban exile community has sufficient capacity to finance this transformation and downplayed the economic challenge of rebuilding the country’s infrastructure: “With the exile community alone—and here I speak for myself, as I own a fairly large company—raising the necessary capital to rebuild Cuba is not difficult. Whether it takes 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80 billion, whatever the figure, it won’t be a problem.”

With the exile alone – and here I speak for myself, as I own a fairly large company – is not difficult to raise the capital needed to rebuild Cuba.

When questioned about the need for a US military intervention, he replied: “That is not for me to decide, or to opine on, but I believe that no option can be ruled out regarding what can or cannot be done in Cuba.”

Mas dismissed the possibility of a transition like Venezuela’s on the island. “What Trump did for Venezuela worked out well for Venezuela, but it won’t work for Cuba, because Cuba is a failed State,” he affirmed, arguing that continue reading

the island lacks functioning institutional structures or forces. “A complete change in leadership is needed, and that change can come from within.”

Although he also asserted that there are opposition figures comparable to María Corina Machado, these figures are not in Cuba because “they cannot speak to the people freely without endangering their lives.”

“The best thing that could happen to Castroism is for it to be buried like a dinosaur of the past,” he stated, endorsing the possible indictment of Raúl Castro for the downing of the Brothers to the Rescue planes in 1996, and asserting that his leadership has worked to bring justice to the families of those killed in that incident. “In any case, it’s a decision for the U.S. Department of Justice. We’ll see.”

The best thing that could happen to Castroism is for it to be buried like a dinosaur of the past.

The businessman and opposition leader also shared two documents with the Spanish media outlet outlining a possible transition on the island. The first, titled “Roadmap for a Prosperous, Democratic, and Free-Market Cuba,” proposes modernizing the banking system, eliminating income tax, offering tax breaks to companies with Cuban capital participation, and investing in sectors such as the pharmaceutical, military, and heavy industries.

The second is a draft Fundamental Law for Democratic Transition, written together with the Cuban-American Lawyers Association, with a Constitutional structure: 28 pages, 115 articles and nine transitional provisions.

Mas Santos explained that his “Fundamental Law for Democratic Transition” does not intend to restore pre-1959 Cuba, but rather to serve as a provisional legal framework to facilitate foreign investment, guarantee human rights, and lead the country toward free elections and a new Constitution.

The businessman defended the idea of a “technologically advanced” Cuba, with an open economy and a “democratic and pluralistic” political system, closely linked to the United States as its main market and economic partner. “I am talking about Cuba’s economic miracle, of a country unlike any of its past, a country that looks to the future,” he asserted.

I am talking about Cuba’s economic miracle, about a country unlike any of the past, a country that looks to the future.

“Those of us who are outside can contribute knowledge, effort, work, and economic resources,” he also said, referring to the role of exile in that transition, and stressed that this future goes beyond “building hotels and doing beach tourism,” pointing out the importance of rebuilding infrastructure, as well as civil power in the cities and “getting the health system working.”

When asked if he imagined a private healthcare system for Cuba, he replied that it would be “a combination of models”: that it could be a private system, but without cost to the citizen, suggesting that access to the healthcare system would be through vouchers paid for by the State. “We all know that the US [healthcare] system doesn’t necessarily work,” he stated.

He considered it “premature” to talk about Cuba as a possible 51st US state – an idea that Trump has recently floated regarding Venezuela: “I don’t rule it out, but the future has to be determined by the Cuban people. We have to give them that option and others through the ballot box.”

Finally, the businessman asserted that he had never seen the Cuban exile community as coordinated as it is now and mentioned his constant contacts with figures such as Rosa María Payá and Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, amidst what he considers “the final stretch” of Castroism.

Although he acknowledged that the exile community has experienced successive disappointments for decades – from the fall of the Soviet Union to the death of Fidel Castro – he stated that he had never perceived such an imminent change as the current one, an expectation he attributed directly to the leadership of Donald Trump and Marco Rubio.

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Cuban State Security Came Looking for Me

With all the problems one has, I prefer the secret police in their “bad guy” mode

Cuban military personnel (stock photo: CubaNet)

Cubanet, Luis Cino, Havana, 30 April 2026. — A few days ago, an official from State Security showed up at my house and, in no more than 15 minutes that we talked while standing at my door, augured for me–in varying tones–a future even darker than that which his fellow repressors predict when they have this type of conversation with me.

Imprisonment, misery, hardship, death, are what he predicted for me. As if I didn’t already know that I’ve had a little of each of those things for a long time. Even death, because even though I am blessed with good health, the life we Cubans live is no kind of life. As Solzhenitsyn wrote, “If in order to live it is necessary not to live, is it worth it?”

For starters, the Lieutenant warned me that “tolerance is over; with the threats from the yanquis, this is no time for your antics,” and he assured me that “if there is an attack, all counterrevolutionaries will be taken out of circulation.”

The official did not specify if the withdrawal from circulation–or disappearance (as they have called it to various oppositionists)–means that they will kill us. But it doesn’t matter, because if the official (who is convinced that the conflagration will occur within a matter of days) is to be believed, it is likely that before they have time to “pick me up preventively,” I would be one of the first victims of the US missiles.

“You’d better pray that Trump will not decide to attack us,” he told me, “because you, who live less than a couple of kilometers from the Western Army* General Command, won’t stand a chance when the bombs start continue reading

flying.”

After he got apocalyptic, he put his hand on my shoulder and counseled me to “get out of that independent journalism, because with your age and how skinny you are, you wouldn’t last in jail.” Right away he got into good-guy mode, as if he were a friend worrying because I smoke a lot, taking interest in my family problems and my future.

“Why didn’t you stay one of those times when you went to the US? What a mistake you made, what a blunder!” he lamented. “Here you have no future. You have one foot on the street and the other in jail. But, supposing that you don’t end up in jail, can you imagine when you get even older, your mind not working, and not being able to write anymore? What will you live on? At that point you won’t have the strength to work in construction or agriculture. And you don’t have a pension. I see you scavenging the dumpsters for cans and bottles.”

Then suddenly, as if illuminated from heaven, he gave me the solution to my problems: “You need to set up a business, become a self-employed worker.” Then he got indignant and before long called me an ingrate when I told him that, if I were to set up a business, then I really would be vulnerable–not as they officially or euphemistically refer to the disabled–but rather because I would be continuously subjected to the multi-thousand-peso fines imposed by the inspectors, who would sometimes be deployed by the very same State Security as a way to harass me without it seeming for political reasons.

He didn’t finish listening to me. He turned around, got on his Suzuki, cranked it up, and went back the way he came.

Truly, with all the problems one has, I prefer the secret police when they come in their bad-guy mode. When they mix their bullying with friendly advice, they make my head spin.

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Translator’s Notes:

*The Western Army of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces is headquartered in Havana and covers the strategic western end (the region closest to the US) of the Island.

Luis Cino biography: Born Havana, 1956. He worked as an English teacher, in construction, and in agriculture. He began working in independent journalism in 1998. He was a member of the editorial board of the magazine De Cuba and deputy director of Primavera Digital. A regular contributor to CubaNet since 2003, he writes about art, history, politics, and society. He lives in Arroyo Naranjo. He dreams of being able to dedicate himself fully and freely to writing fiction. He is passionate about good books, the sea, jazz, and blues.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

Night-time Hunt for Megabytes in Matanzas Cuba

Near the telecommunications tower, the seafront promenade has become a kind of public video-call room

For months, this stretch of the Matanzas seafront promenade has become a kind of public video-call room / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Matanzas, Julio César Contreras, May 17, 2026 / At seven in the evening, when the sky over Matanzas Bay begins to turn grey and the cars thin out on the Vía Blanca, the Martí promenade fills with passers-by staring at their phone screens with the same intensity with which people once stared at the horizon. Some arrive alone, others as couples, others with small children running around near the granite benches while the adults try to catch an internet signal that appears and disappears like a mirage.

For months, this stretch of the Matanzas seafront promenade has become a kind of public video-call room, makeshift office and digital meeting point for those who, amid the blackouts and poor coverage, cannot get connected from home. The telecommunications tower in that part of the city is one of the few that still works, badly, when the connection goes down in the rest of the neighbourhoods.

When the browser on her phone starts going round and round in endless circles, Anays understands that, if she wants to speak to her sister, she will have to walk to the Martí promenade, about twelve blocks from where she lives, in the Versalles neighbourhood. “I have to do this every day at nightfall. If there’s no power, the coverage in my house drops almost completely. The problem is that at this time there is never any electricity,” complains the Matanzas resident, as she adjusts her mobile phone, looking for the exact angle where the video call will not freeze.

If there’s no power, the coverage in my house drops almost completely. The problem is that at this time there is never any electricity

The scene is repeated bench after bench. A woman in a pink dress anxiously checks the screen while a man beside her raises his head in resignation, as if expecting to find the signal floating among the clouds heavy with humidity. Farther on, beneath a flamboyant tree with spreading branches, a young man bent over his phone barely moves. His posture recalls the old fishermen of the shoreline, except that now no one is casting hooks into the sea, but trying to catch megabytes in the air.

As midnight approaches, dozens of people fight off mosquitoes around the antenna installed near the headquarters of the Municipal Committee of the Communist Party. “Even in this area the connection is sometimes terrible. Suddenly the call cuts off, the image freezes and, meanwhile, the minutes keep passing and the megabytes are being used up,” explains Anays, who still has not cooked the evening meal but gives priority continue reading

to the family conversation, even if that means going down and back up the hill in the dark every day.

In Matanzas, speaking over the internet has become a mixture of patience, strategy and physical endurance / 14ymedio

In Matanzas, speaking over the internet has become a mixture of patience, strategy and physical endurance. Some people leave home as soon as the power comes back in order to take advantage of the brief moment when the antennas work; others wait until the early hours because they say that “at that time you can browse a little better.” The younger ones know the exact spots where one extra bar of coverage comes in. “Here, close to the wall,” “under that palm tree,” “beside the bench,” are instructions heard as if they were coordinates.

“This country is getting worse all the time and now hepatitis is back,” says Tomás from another bench on the promenade while making a video call to his son, who has emigrated. “You sent me the top-up on Sunday and I only managed to receive it today, Monday. Now I’m going to try to save data as much as I can, because last month’s bonus was gone in less than a week.”

“This country is getting worse all the time and now hepatitis is back’

The man speaks loudly because there is a delay in the communication and he fears the call may drop at any moment. Near him, a dog sleeps on the cement while its owner stares fixedly at the phone connected to a pair of earphones. A few metres away, a young woman lights up her face with her mobile-phone screen in the growing gloom. The whole promenade seems to breathe to the rhythm of the intermittent connections.

“The truth is, I don’t know whether Etecsa has technical problems or is messing with us, but I get the impression that the amount of the top-up doesn’t match how long the mobile data is actually lasting,” Tomás insists. He then explains to his son that his wife could not come because it is her turn to look after the sick grandmother. “Don’t waste time calling me at home. Even if I climb onto the roof, I can’t hear you. Things are bad all over the city.”

The crisis makes no distinction between ages. “Your niece, to do a school assignment, spent more than an hour in Liberty Park downloading what she needed,” the man says, before again thanking him for the top-up sent from abroad. “If it weren’t for you, we’d be cut off.”

Getting connected on the Martí promenade is not a fashion, nor is it an excuse to look at the sea. Most people arrive exhausted after a day marked by blackouts, queues and heat. Yet, as night falls, the benches fill up again. The faces lit by the screens look like little modern bonfires in the middle of the darkness.

“I get the impression that the amount of the top-up doesn’t match how long the mobile data is actually lasting”

“My wife nearly fell the other day because of a pile of rubbish across the street after finishing the video call with our grandson,” says Eriberto, while making sure that his wife does not wander too far away with the phone in her hand. “The image freezes here too and you have to move around. But if we stay at home, we have no connection until after midnight.”

The old man looks around. There are already very few lights and the city begins to turn into one huge shadow. “Everything gets pitch black, and everywhere there’s a hole or a ditch full of rotten water,” he murmurs before getting up from the bench. Then he slowly puts away the phone, like someone protecting something too expensive and too fragile in a country where communicating with family has ended up looking more and more like a night-time expedition.

Translated by GH

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Plurality Will Be Part of a Democratic Cuba, But ‘The Priority Is To End the Dictatorship’

José Daniel Ferrer, in Madrid, lashes out at European complicity with Havana

“Being their enemy is always better; it is the only way to get them to respect you,” Ferrer said, referring to Spain’s timid and complacent stance towards the regime. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 17 May 2026 / “Spain must stop giving oxygen to the Cuban dictatorship.” The dry, direct sentence summed up the message José Daniel Ferrer delivered this Friday at a meeting lasting more than two hours with dozens of Cuban exiles in Madrid. The opposition leader did not come to ask for symbolic gestures or lukewarm declarations, but for a concrete political decision: to suspend the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and Cuba, a framework which, he denounced, has done more to sustain the regime than to improve the lives of Cubans.

In Cuban prisons, Ferrer saw padlocks and handcuffs bearing the inscription “Made in Spain”. The image served to point directly at Spain as the European country most determined to keep relations with Havana open. “After China, Spain has become one of the biggest exporters to Cuba of products used in repression,” he said before an audience that included, among others, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, former Vox spokesman in the Congress of Deputies, and Rocío Monasterio, a Spanish-Cuban politician and former spokeswoman for that party in the Parliament of the Autonomous Community of Madrid.

The opposition figure, released from prison and sent into exile after spending more than twelve years in the regime’s jails, insisted that the Spanish Government cannot present itself as a defender of human rights while backing a policy of understanding with a dictatorship. “Spain must stop supporting an anti-democratic regime that violates the rights of all its citizens,” he maintained.

“It is a regime that only understands the language of pressure” / 14ymedio

During his stay in this country, Ferrer is scheduled to meet politicians from the People’s Party and Vox. For now, he has no meetings arranged with figures from the Socialist Government, although he said he would be willing to speak with them. His aim, he said, would be to repeat to them the same thing he has taken to other European countries: that Cuba does not need more diplomatic oxygen, but international pressure. “It is a regime that only understands the language of pressure,” he said.

Ferrer also recalled the attitude which, according to him, some Spanish officials posted in Havana maintained for years. In the days of the thaw, they avoided meeting opposition figures, even when Barack Obama continue reading

was able to do so during his visit to the Island. The explanation, he said, was that the President of the United States was allowed to do so because he was “the enemy”, whereas Spain was not. Ferrer would answer them with sharp Cuban humour: “Then being their enemy is always better; it is the only way to get them to respect you.”

“If he vomits it up, they pick it up off the floor and put it back in his mouth”

The most harrowing part of the meeting came when he spoke about prison. The leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (Unpacu) described humiliations, punishments and torture suffered by him and by other political prisoners. During a hunger strike, he recalled, they forced him to swallow rotten soup. A guard threatened him: “If he vomits it up, they pick it up off the floor and put it back in his mouth.”

Among the punishments, he mentioned the one the guards themselves know as “Shakira”: handcuffing the detainee by hands and feet for hours, forcing him to writhe in pain on the cold floor of a cell. Another method, he explained, consists of hanging the prisoner from the upper part of a grille, handcuffed, forcing him to remain for a long time barely supported on the tips of his toes.

Ferrer also spoke about the Catholic Church, an institution with which he has a relationship marked by gratitude and disappointment. He recalled moments when the church hierarchy acted as mediator to get inconvenient opposition figures out of Cuba, turning release from prison into banishment. But he distinguished that conduct from that of many priests, religious and laypeople who, inside the Island, he said, “have bravely defended the dignity of Cubans”, even from the pulpit, in the face of abuses by those in power.

“The advice of the regime’s thugs is not advice, it is threats,” he said, before recalling Samaniego’s fable ‘The Dog and the Crocodile’

The opposition leader devoted a central part of his remarks to political prisoners. He asked the exile community not to limit itself to providing economic support to families, but to accompany them emotionally and keep every case constantly visible. “The better known a prisoner of conscience is, the more careful they are about abusing him,” he said. For Ferrer, the most effective combination is for the prisoner to remain firm and for his family also to denounce what is happening.

He also warned against the silence imposed by fear. Many families, he explained, avoid denouncing beatings, threats or lack of medical care in the hope of protecting the inmate. But that strategy, he insisted, almost never works. “The advice of the regime’s thugs is not advice, it is threats,” he said, before recalling Samaniego’s fable ‘The Dog and the Crocodile’: one should not accept as guidance the voice of someone who wants to devour you.

Ferrer also devoted several minutes to the responsibility of the exile community. Leaving Cuba, he said, does not mean abandoning the struggle or becoming a spectator. To prove it, he showed on his phone a WhatsApp thread with an endless list of contacts with activists, relatives of political prisoners, independent journalists and opposition figures who are still inside the Island. “We have to talk every day with those who are over there,” he insisted.

When an activist knows that someone calls him, listens to him and publicises his case, he feels less alone in the face of the machinery of repression. Isolation, he recalled, is one of the regime’s most effective weapons.

“We have to talk every day with those who are over there”

He also referred to the emergence of new political parties and platforms in exile. He considered this positive, but issued a warning: the struggle against the dictatorship cannot be turned into an early election campaign. “The priority must be to end the dictatorship,” he said. Plurality will be indispensable in a democratic Cuba, but first, he stressed, “we have to win the freedoms that do not exist today”.

Ferrer called for coordination among organisations, activists, journalists, Churches, relatives of prisoners and emigrant communities. “The dictatorship is cohesive,” he recalled. Its apparatus, he said, acts together to repress, monitor, discredit, infiltrate and divide.

For that reason, he called on the exile community not to fall into rivalries manufactured in Havana. “Their main strategy has always been to set us against one another,” he warned. Differences of opinion, he added, must not become enmity or a public spectacle for the benefit of the regime.

His final appeal was less a speech than a warning. Cuba’s freedom, he came to say, will not come from international compassion or from agreements with the repressors. It will come when the tap of external legitimacy is turned off, when political prisoners are not left alone, and when the exile community understands that its strength lies not in competing for the future, but in pushing together against the present.

Translated by GH

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The Ladies in White Lament that Sissi Abascal Had to Leave Cuba to Regain her Freedom

“It’s not the way one would want to be free, but the prisoner and their family are the ones who decide,” says Berta Soler

“Sissi and her mother Annia were two women worthy of respect,” Soler emphasized. / Facebook / Sissi Abascal

14ymedio / EFE, Havana, May 16, 2026 – The leader of the Cuban opposition group Ladies in White, Berta Soler, lamented this Friday that political prisoner Sissi Abascal, 28, one of the youngest members of her group, had to leave the country in order to regain her freedom.

“Two brave Ladies in White, Sissi Abascal Zamora and her mother, Annia Zamora, arrived in exile; the choice was to leave Cuba or remain imprisoned,” Soler wrote on social media following the arrival of both dissidents in the U.S. city of Miami.

Soler considered that “it’s not the way one would want to be free, but the prisoner and their family are the ones who decide.”

“With their example, courage, and love for their homeland, they became leaders in this place”

She also highlighted that “Sissi and her mother Annia were two women worthy of respect” in the town of Carlos Rojas in the province of Matanzas, and affirmed that “with their example, courage, and love for their homeland, they became leaders in this place.”

Soler recalled that Abascal is one of the youngest women in the Ladies in White movement, which she joined “at only 16 years old.” continue reading

The independent group Justice 11J, which has been responsible for documenting arrests, judicial proceedings, and human rights violations on the Island, celebrated on social media that “Sissi is out of prison.”

But it also demanded that “all people imprisoned for political reasons be released, without exile being imposed on them as a condition.”

Prisoners Defenders, based in Madrid, recorded 1,260 political prisoners in Cuba

Likewise, the NGO Cubalex emphasized that Sissi Abascal “is being forced to leave Cuba, with her freedom conditioned on exile” and that “she is leaving the country alongside her mother Annia Zamora.”

The organization added that in 2025 Cuban authorities denied Abascal the benefit of being transferred to a minimum-security regime, as well as parole.

“Today, they prefer to grant her the benefit of parole — at the discretion of the authorities — in order to exile her, rather than place her in a less severe regime within Cuba,” Cubalex stated.

Abascal was sentenced to six years in prison for the crimes of “public disorder,” “contempt,” and “assault” for her participation in the anti-government protests of July 11, 2021, the largest in decades in Cuba.

Abascal’s release coincided with the publication of the latest report by the Madrid-based NGO Prisoners Defenders, which recorded 1,260 political prisoners in Cuba.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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