Havana Chronicles: The Roar of Despair of a Cuban Woman Returning to Her Country After Many Years

Leaving us out in the sun rather than allowing us into the air-conditioned room feeds the custodian’s authority and might even give him a dopamine rush.

The first thing is to make it clear to her that the country she remembers no longer exists. / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, May 28, 2026 / After more than two decades in Stockholm, a childhood friend has recently returned to Havana. The death of her grandmother brought her back to an island where she had only spent a few days on vacation since emigrating. Acting as a guide for a Cuban living abroad is a bitter task. The first thing is to make it clear that the country she remembers no longer exists, that the nation she cherishes in her memory disappeared long ago.

For the first few days, my friend enjoyed everything. She told me she felt relieved to barely be able to communicate on the internet and hardly at all by phone, after years of overexposure to social media in Sweden. She savored a mamey and felt like she was in heaven. She tasted a cherimoya and fell into a trance. But that naive joy soon ended. Reality seeped like corrosive acid through the cracks of her illusion.

Empowered with a foreign bank card, my friend decided to go shopping for groceries to prepare a family dinner. I reluctantly accompanied her, knowing that frustration is the most common commodity found in those stores that operate in dollars. We walked up the hill on Tulipán Street and then down to La Mariposa. Inside, all the refrigerators were empty. There was no meat, no butter, no sausages, and certainly no fish. My friend pouted like a Swede in distress.

Across from the building that was once Raúl Castro’s home, a bright blue facade marks the dollar market in that neighborhood. / 14ymedio

Then, with that indefatigable energy that comes from eating well for the last quarter of a century, she told me we should go to a market on 26th Street. “I read online that it has Spanish products and is well-stocked,” she explained to me. My face responded with a skeptical expression. We passed the Acapulco movie theater, and then she told me that’s where she had her first kiss with her high school sweetheart. The dark lobby, the marquee without advertisements, and a faint whiff of urine wafting from under the door brought her back to the present.

Near the Chinese cemetery, a man under 30, dressed in rags, caught up with us and gave each of us an azalea flower. “Something to eat,” he said immediately after handing us the fragile, purple petals. My friend didn’t have any cash, but she gave him a bag containing a can of soda and a ham and cheese sandwich. The young man started crying like a child, and she couldn’t tell if it was from emotion or because she had offended him by giving away her snack. “Those are the tears of hunger,” I had to explain continue reading

to her.

Across from the building that was once Raúl Castro’s home, an intense blue facade marks the dollar market in that neighborhood. A dozen people crowded around the small doorway. There wasn’t room for another soul in the shade, so we waited outside. No one was going in, no one was going out. “They’re inputting yesterday’s sales into the cash register because they didn’t have electricity and had to process them by hand,” an elderly woman who was also waiting explained to me.

Reality seeped like corrosive acid through the cracks of her illusion

After about half an hour, several people waiting to enter decided to leave. My friend’s face was bright red; I don’t know if it was from the blazing sun or from the frustration caused by all the nonsense. Then the power went out. Everything inside went dark. An employee came out to explain that they couldn’t process card payments anymore because “when there’s no power, the reader doesn’t work.” The Cuban-Swedish woman next to me looked like she was fuming.

In most of the dollar stores that the Cuban military has opened across the country, sales made with debit cards are canceled when the electricity goes out. The explanation, after inquiring with employees and managers, boils down to the fact that the POS (point-of-sale) terminal loses power and cannot communicate with the bank to process the transaction. The cash registers also shut down, and each purchase must be recorded by hand on endless forms with an original and a copy.

I do a quick calculation. A battery to power the POS and the cash register for several hours would cost, at most, a few hundred dollars. In other words, Gaesa loses tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars every day by not investing in small backup power plants. This mix of rapacity and stinginess has characterized the military conglomerate for decades. Quick to squeeze foreign currency out of people’s pockets, it’s also profoundly inefficient at improving its services. Greed and negligence; predation and incompetence, all together and packaged in an olive-green uniform from which the businessman’s tie awkwardly peeks out.

In El Laguito, they must be having nightmares about a mob storming through the gates of the dollar markets, the ministerial offices, and the government palaces.

Then my friend and I walked to another store, the same kind, in El Vedado. A security guard closed the door right in front of our faces. Inside the store there wasn’t a single customer, but we had to wait outside for more than ten minutes. Everyone with any power in Cuba tries to squeeze every last drop of that power out of others. Leaving us out in the sun rather than letting us into the air-conditioned store feeds their authority and maybe even gives them a dopamine rush. Prohibiting, blocking access, and scolding reinforce the small sphere of control held by the security guards, doormen, and the CVP (Surveillance and Protection Corps).

I sit on the curb to wait. I notice that of all the wide glass doors this market used to have, only one small one is open. The rest have been boarded up, and some are covered with metal plates to protect them from stones. Castro’s regime has always been afraid of the people. In El Laguito, they must have nightmares about a mob storming through the gates of the dollar markets, the government offices, and the presidential palaces. Blocking the flow of the masses means walling off every space through which a crowd could enter.

My friend lets out a roar of desperation. I look at her; her eyes are narrowed, she’s biting her lower lip, and she’s about to swear—no one knows if in Swedish or in the Spanish of La Timba, where she was born and raised. “Let’s go, I can’t take it anymore,” she begs me. I haven’t had to explain much. Reality itself has made it clear that the country she remembers no longer exists.

Previous Havana Chronicles:

The Tulipán Market Closed: “They’ve Given the Order To Go to the March for Raúl”

Along Carlos III Street and towards Ethiopia

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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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

‘If the [Cuban] System Implodes, the Ruling Class Will Disappear – and They Know It’

  • Economic changes will not be possible in Cuba without international humanitarian intervention
  • Between 2020 and 2024, 24% of the Cuban population has left the country and they are not coming back
    In 2025, the number of births fell to 68,000 – below what can be estimated for the year 1899
Interview with Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Rosa Pascual, Madrid,  29 May 2026 – Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos (1963) describes himself as a child of the Cuban baby boom – that generation now facing a serious short-term threat that nobody knows how to resolve: retirement. That is one of his greatest concerns, alongside concepts such as what he calls “demographic hollowing-out” and the Malthusianism of poverty.

A graduate in Industrial Economics from the University of Havana, he is one of the foremost experts in demography – which he also studied in Costa Rica and Paris – to the point that his is now considered the most reliable count, putting the Cuban population at 8,025,624, far from the official figure of 9,748,532. He argues, however, with full conviction that Cuba does not have a population problem, but rather a population with problems.

He believes that change in Cuba is “inexorable” and is optimistic that recovery could be faster than expected, though when pressed on timescales he warns it could take no less than four years. Even so, he returns to the same point more than once during the conversation: “Remember, I could always be wrong.” And laughs.

Question. Talking to a demography expert, it’s inevitable to start by asking your opinion on the new Migration Law, which has finally just been published.

Answer. It’s still very early, but I can see things I don’t like. First of all, this invention of “effective residence.” That smells just as bad as the changes made in 2013. Cuba started showing positive net migration balances, as if more people were coming in than leaving. But that was because they had changed the method of tracking. Now, since they’ve spent so long denying the migration figures and so long trying to mask the exodus, what it seems to me is that this “effective residence” concept is going to help mask the figures. Imagine that if you happen to spend 180 days in Cuba for whatever reason, you’re already an effective resident. If a population count or census is carried out at that moment, the person would show up as a permanent resident.

There’s something here that strikes me as incoherent with respect to the Constitution, because the Constitution is clear that Cuban nationality is unique. Multiple nationality is not provided for at a constitutional level. How can a decree be issued that accepts multiple nationality when the Constitution explicitly prohibits it? That is completely unconstitutional.

How can a decree be issued that accepts multiple nationality when the Constitution explicitly prohibits it? That is completely unconstitutional.

Q. I wanted you to talk to me in historical terms. Cuba went from a strong immigration movement in the first half of the twentieth century to having…

A. First third, first third.

Q. Yes, and then to having nothing.

A. Well, Cuba is quite a singular case. The thing is, it emerges from a process of “demographic depression” linked to the last war of independence, in which it loses around 300,000 inhabitants. In that war, a tactic of the Cubans was to destroy Spain’s economic base – the sugar industry – and the Spanish side responded by concentrating the rural population in the cities, in very poor living conditions, to deprive the liberation army of its social base. That ended up driving mortality rates to completely unprecedented levels. What has been estimated is that infant mortality in 1895 – the opening year of the war – reached 380 per thousand live births.

Cuba enters the twentieth century with a population of between 1.6 and 1.8 million, but then, when this new period of pacification arrives – American administration, organisation, restoration, sanitary clean-up and all that – the Cuban population has a sort of mini baby boom between 1899 and 1910. From there, Cuba’s birth rate begins a sustained decline, until reaching 1957, when the real Cuban baby boom begins, lasting until 1963.

In those years there were very strong emigration flows in many European countries, most notably Spain and Italy. In Cuba’s case, the majority of arrivals were Spanish. Bear in mind that all those who came between 1900 and 1930 or thereabouts – because the 1931 census already shows this phenomenon – essentially doubled the population through migration alone. And it’s interesting, because the metropolis that had opposed independence ended up repopulating the country. Eighty per cent of those migrants were of Spanish origin – young single men who married native women and passed on a pattern of fertility reduction, because you don’t migrate to have children, but to settle down and build a decent life.

Eighty per cent of those migrants were of Spanish origin – young single men who married native women and passed on a pattern of fertility reduction, because you don’t migrate to have children, but to settle down and build a decent life.

Families with fewer children found it easier to cope with the economic crisis of 1929-1933, because looking after ten children is not the same as looking after five. And that is an effect that has finally been described in more recent literature as the Malthusianism of poverty. That is to say: if you have few resources, the only option left is to reduce the size of your offspring, because every child born means an investment cost for their survival. And that’s happening now too – the latest measurement puts it at 1.29 children per woman.

Q. Yes, well, it’s similar here in Spain.

A. Of course, but in developed countries the fertility transition was driven by families with higher income levels and greater economic means – the same ones who most readily adopt new behaviours when it comes to family planning. But in Cuba’s case – and this contradicts the official line – what’s happening is a consolidation or a hardening of the fertility pattern of Malthusianism of poverty. And that explains the brutal falls in the number of births: since 2024 the figure stood at 71,300-odd, and last year it dropped to 68,000-odd – a birth figure that is below what can be estimated for the year 1899. Did you hear that right? 1899. People sometimes say “no, you’ve got the wrong date.” No – it’s 1899.

From around 1933-1934, Cuba’s migration balance reverses and it starts to become a country of emigration, not only to the United States but also within the region: Venezuela with the oil boom of the 1950s, Mexico, Puerto Rico…

Q. You argue that by 2030 the entire Cuban baby boom generation will be retiring. What can be done? Because this calls for an urgent solution and the outlook isn’t very encouraging.

A. And nobody mentions it! I’ve been battling with that issue for years. First of all, because since 2010 the economically active population has stopped replacing itself – more people are leaving than entering. And that’s before the latest wave of emigration. Moreover, Cuba was historically a country with very low utilisation of its workforce. People think the Special Period began in the 1990s, but the first time Cuba’s GDP actually falls is in 1985 – that’s when it starts, and it’s been going ever since. There has been a sustained decline in fertility since 2012 and also in life expectancy, and the process of demographic ageing has become entrenched – demographic ageing as a population structure concept, not just “getting old” – because of the 24% of the population I’ve calculated to have left, 80% of those people are aged between 15 and 59.

Q. Right, but so what would the solution be?

A. The solution has to be a change of model. In the second half of the 1980s, Vietnam was confronted with a famine, which led it to carry out the reforms it has been implementing since 1989. Within three years it had become the world’s biggest rice exporter. The Chinese did something similar – Deng Xiaoping began his reforms around 1980, and we all know how the Chinese economic story turned out. Whatever we may think or say about the political model, that is the reality. What happened to the Chinese and Vietnamese pension systems is that they are economically sustainable. Cuba’s is not.

If what needs to change hasn’t changed, we’re going to have a very hard time, because the State – which is already broken socio-economically – would have no option but to abandon people to their fate. In fact, it’s already happening in terms of healthcare collapse, food crisis… which gives the measure of a population being abandoned to its fate.

Q. Given all the expectations right now, do you think anything is actually going to change?

A. Look, the change is going to be inexorable. It will change because the system is heading towards a point of implosion. And that is unstoppable. It’s going to happen. And the ruling class is going to be smart enough to realise that if the situation implodes, they too will disappear. There’ll be no way out for anyone, and you could get a social explosion like July 11th, when the regime already made clear what its attitude would be.

The ruling class is going to be smart enough to realise that if the situation implodes, they too will disappear.

On top of that, this could happen in a context of migration closure – which is the other issue. Cuban emigration has been slowing down not because there are fewer people who want to leave, but because there are fewer opportunities, for example with a migration market as large as the American one. Though routes still exist: there are currently 135,000 Cubans with work permits in Guyana alone, and there are other corridors – Central American, South American, North African… I have a list of around 20 migration routes where a Cuban presence has been detected. The population drain will continue in this process I’ve called hollowing-out – an accelerated depopulation that moreover happens over a very short period of time.

Up to 31 December 2024, I have calculated the departure of around 24% of the population relative to 2020, in the absence of war – because this sort of thing is recorded in countries in full armed conflict, particularly in Africa. It’s a genuine displacement crisis.

Q. We’ve recently seen the US President say he knew many Cubans who were happy in the United States, but that now that Cuba was going to change they would return. Do you think that’s true?

A. So has Trump put the cherry on the cake of demographic theory? [laughs] Those return flows have never happened, and there might be people who want to go back to see where they used to live. What there could be is people interested in investing – that’s true – because some people say that even the investment process that’s needed is not all that complex or costly: that Cuba is very small (which was actually a factor in the demographic transition and modernisation in the first half of the twentieth century), that it’s a long narrow country where distances are very short, and where what’s needed is a level of resources that could be substantial initially, but will gradually reduce, just as they will be recovered as an investment.

The problem is whether the necessary legal framework exists to make that possible. Because what can’t happen is that you expect lots of people to come and invest in Cuba and then have their money taken away from them.

But emigration is now “the canary in the mine.” In the nineteenth century, miners took a canary down with them. If there was a gas leak, the canary would stop singing, or pass out, or die – and everyone would run. That’s what demography is doing: sounding the alarm, denouncing the action, the effect, the impact of factors that are not demographic in nature, but that affect it enormously. The question is: who wants to invest in fixing all that? That’s why the role of international organisations will be so important, because no private businessman is going to solve this on his own.

People will keep leaving, because if things change today that doesn’t mean there’ll automatically be jobs for everyone tomorrow, or that all the healthcare infrastructure will be completely renewed with brand-new equipment…

Q. How long do you think a degree of recovery might take?

A. I think there needs to be a stabilisation process of at least four years, in which many things are sorted out that necessarily have to contribute to development – restoration of transport, communications, social, economic and energy-production infrastructure. Because when the electricity goes, it doesn’t just go for me – it goes for the factory too.

I think there needs to be a stabilisation process of at least four years, in which many things are sorted out that necessarily have to contribute to development.

But one of the things that has to change is the legal framework of the system, because if you want to protect private investment, state investment, whatever kind of investment – you have to build a legal structure that makes that protection possible. And when you change the legal basis of the system, you are changing the system politically. Laws, the legal order… these are nothing other than the will of the ruling class. You have to change it politically. There’s no other way, because it’s a system – all the dimensions are connected.

Q. Do you think that change will come under the tutelage of the United States?

A. I’ve always said, since 2021 – since COVID – that Cuba needs an international humanitarian intervention. A humanitarian intervention like those in Syria, Kosovo, Haiti… There are intervention forces that have also brought with them what’s called an interposition force [like the Blue Helmets], which protects the population from violence. In fact, economic changes won’t be possible without that. Look at Haiti…

Haiti hasn’t managed it. And that could be… Well, there’s a great Cuban economist, Mauricio de Miranda, who talks about the “Haitianisation” of Cuba as a real, already-occurring process. And indeed, when you look at productivity indicators in the economy, Cuba ends up in last place… and if you’re in last place for labour productivity in the Americas, you’re in last place in the Western Hemisphere. Immediately below whom?

Q. Haiti.

A. Exactly. And if you take, for example, Hanke’s annual misery index, in 2021 Cuba was already in first place. Its position on the human development index has fallen to level 95. When the Tarea Ordenamiento* [the monetary reordering exercise] was implemented, I estimated inflation at 1,850%, Pérez-Castellanos at 1,840%, Hanke at 1,220%… We’re talking about four-digit inflation.

I remember once an American professor who came in the 1990s, when the boom in American university groups started – they would come for academic semesters. And this one brought his doctoral group along, saying: “In Cuba, students can see what happens when things are done badly. And no school of economics in the world teaches that.”

*English sources generally refer to it as “The Ordering Task” 

This text was produced in collaboration with Cuba Siglo 21 as part of the project “Cuba: Stabilize and Develop”.

Translated by GH

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuban Authorities Prohibit Alina López Hernández From Attending the LASA Congress in Paris

The academic says the authorities are keeping her legal case “filed away” to avoid the political cost of sending her to prison

Dr. Alina Bárbara López Hernández during her virtual intervention at the LASA congress. / Facebook/Alina Bárbara López Hernández

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, May 29, 2026 — Dr. Alina Bárbara López Hernández, co-director of the Cuba Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), denounced that the Cuban regime prevented her from attending the organization’s annual congress being held this week in Paris.

In a post on her Facebook profile, she explained that despite her important position within LASA’s Cuba Section, “the Cuban Government did not allow me to attend because of the (i)legal process in which I am charged together with Jenny Pantoja, although my travel restriction dates from long before that judicial process.”

López Hernández has been under a travel ban imposed by Cuban authorities since June 2023, despite the intellectual having denounced the arbitrariness of this State decision, which contradicts the Constitution of the Republic itself.

The academic noted in her Thursday post that the prohibition makes her the first co-president of a LASA section in Cuba who is an intellectual under repression and that “this says a great deal about changing times… and about the repressive nature of the Cuban State. Even more than any continue reading

declaration could say.”

“This says a great deal about changing times… and about the repressive nature of the Cuban State. Even more than any declaration could say.”

López and Pantoja are accused of the crime of assault stemming from events that occurred on June 18, 2024, when they were repressed by agents trying to prevent the peaceful protest they carry out on the 18th day of every month. In May 2025, the Prosecutor’s Office requested four years of deprivation of liberty for the intellectual, to be replaced by correctional labor without imprisonment, while for the anthropologist it requested three years, also with the option of substitution by correctional labor.

Interviewed this Friday by Martí Noticias, the academic declared that Cuban authorities are not only preventing her from leaving the country, but are also keeping her legal case and Pantoja’s shelved in order to avoid the political cost of a trial that could send the academic to prison. López Hernández stressed: “Because I am not going to accept correctional labor without imprisonment. I am going to prison, and they know it, that I will not yield on that because of ethics, conviction, and conscience.”

According to the doctor, other Cuban academics from different institutions were able to attend the event, some of them already retired. López Hernández could only share a message with the LASA congress virtually. In the post, the academic thanked colleagues in the session for the debate generated, “where it became clear that studies on Cuba will not respond to political agendas nor can they be conditioned by particular interests.”

“I am not going to accept correctional labor without imprisonment. I am going to prison, and they know it, that I will not yield on that because of ethics, conviction, and conscience.”

14ymedio had already reported this month on the leak of an internal discussion within LASA’s Cuba Section, revealing disagreements over critical positions within the association. The debate originated from a declaration proposed by lawyer and academic Raudiel Peña Barrios, urging the Cuban Government to accept dialogue with citizens who dissent from official economic, political, and social agendas. Figures such as sociologist Aurelio Alonso rejected the proposal, calling it “unacceptable” because they considered it a condemnatory statement. Alina Bárbara López was one of the voices defending the proposal, arguing from her own position as an intellectual suffering repression from State Security.

Since its founding, LASA had been a space close to the Cuban regime’s narrative within the international academic sphere, but after the July 11 protests, the State’s repressive response and the organization’s silence generated discontent among Cuban researchers and led to resignations by members both inside and outside the Island.

In July 2024, more than fifty LASA members requested that the Executive Committee explicitly condemn the “political repression” in Cuba following reports of police violence against Dr. López Hernández and Jenny Pantoja.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Lukashenko: “We Are Willing To Do Everything Possible for Cuba and Everything the Situation Allows”

Salvador Valdés Mesa met in Astana with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Belarus during the Eurasian Economic Union summit

In his meeting with Valdés Mesa, Lukashenko assured that Minsk “is aware” of what is happening in the “friendly country.” / X / Salvador Valdés Mesa

14ymedio biggerEFE / 14ymedio, Astana, May 29, 2026 — Cuban Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa met this Friday in Astana with the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, on the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) summit, a bloc in which Havana participates as an observer country.

During the meeting with Tokayev, the parties discussed the development of bilateral relations, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, according to a statement from the Kazakh presidency. The president explained to Valdés Mesa the steps being taken by the largest country in Central Asia to introduce new technological solutions and expressed his willingness to share that experience with Cuba.

In addition, both leaders highlighted the potential for expanding cooperation in “promising” sectors such as medicine and the pharmaceutical industry. They also examined opportunities to deepen trade, cultural, and humanitarian ties.

The closeness between Cuba and Belarus is not limited to the commercial sphere

In his meeting with Valdés Mesa, Lukashenko assured that Minsk “is aware” of what is happening in the “friendly country.” “We are willing to do everything possible for Cuba and everything the continue reading

situation allows,” said the Belarusian leader, one of Moscow’s closest allies.

Lukashenko added that his country would strictly comply with the agreements reached within the framework of the EAEU and invited Havana to present “additional proposals” to improve bilateral cooperation, which would be considered by Minsk.

The closeness between Cuba and Belarus is not limited to the commercial sphere. In recent years, both countries have strengthened military contacts, with visits by high-ranking Cuban Armed Forces officials to Minsk and Belarusian military chiefs to Havana. In 2023, the defense ministers of both countries discussed military and technical-military cooperation; afterward, the Belarusian press reported Cuban interest in systems such as the Polonez-M missiles, while new “negotiations” and visits linked to air equipment, combat drones, and air defense systems have been documented.

Valdés Mesa invited business leaders from the regional bloc nations to participate in the Havana International Fair scheduled for November

Cuba and the EAEU, made up of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia, agreed this Thursday on a roadmap to strengthen cooperation in the economic, commercial, and scientific sectors.

Among the areas with business opportunities on the Island, Valdés Mesa pointed to the Mariel Special Development Zone, biotechnology, tourism, the sugar industry, and agriculture.

The Cuban vice president also described to his hosts the complex situation the country is going through, which he attributed to the “tightening of the U.S. economic and oil embargo” and to “Washington’s threats of military aggression against the Island.”

In addition, he invited business leaders from the nations of the regional bloc to participate in the Havana International Fair scheduled for November, where new business deals could be finalized.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Democratic Senator Rubén Gallego on Cuba: “The U.S. Will Try To Change the Government One Way or Another”

The lawmaker also warns about the electoral impact of wars promoted from the White House

Rubén Gallego, U.S. senator for the state of Arizona and member of the Democratic Party. / EFE/María León

14ymedio bigger14ymedio/Europa Press, Madrid, May 29, 2026 — Democratic Senator for the state of Arizona, Rubén Gallego, warned this Friday that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump “will try to change the Government of Cuba, one way or another,” a prospect he said he opposes.

“I believe there will be an attempt to change the Government of Cuba, whether through the military or by some other means. Cubans living outside the island have a great deal of influence in circles close to the president,” he asserted during a meeting with journalists at the headquarters of the Real Instituto Elcano, taking advantage of his visit to Madrid.

He thus referred to U.S. foreign policy and the actions of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom he accused of “having an obsession with this issue.” Rubio himself stated last week that Havana is “a threat to U.S. national security” and accused the island of being “one of the sponsors of terrorism throughout the region.”

“I believe that 99% of elected Democrats will be against this war and are seeking to pass a law to stop an attempt to invade Cuba”

Gallego, addressing these remarks — which Cuba claims amount to the United States “instigating military aggression” — argued in turn that the Caribbean nation “is not a threat to the United States.” “It is a very poor island with 9 million people,” he said, while emphasizing that “the United States should not start any war.”

“I believe that 99% of elected Democrats will be against this war and are seeking to pass a law to stop an attempt to invade Cuba. I hope we succeed and can stop this, but I believe this president and the Cubans who are in the United States will try to bring down the Government,” he maintained.

The senator clarified that he himself introduced the bill together with Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, former vice-presidential candidate, with the goal of requiring Congress to authorize Trump to carry out military operations similar to those that took place on Iranian and Venezuelan soil. “Hopefully we will have the opportunity to pass this law,” he added.

Regarding the operation carried out in January on Venezuelan soil — which resulted in the capture and transfer to the United States of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores — Gallego stressed that it represented a “tactical success” but a “failure” in political terms because it had “used the military to bring down a foreign government.” continue reading

“Maduro was deeply corrupt, but that does not give us a license to bring down the Government”

“Maduro was deeply corrupt, but that does not give us a license to bring down the Government because we open the door for what we say — that someone is a criminal or delinquent — to be used by other countries, for example China, against others such as Taiwan,” he explained.

“Strategically and militarily it was a success, but we have replaced one dictator with another, so geopolitically speaking I think it has been a failure,” he added.

When asked about the possible results of the midterm elections scheduled for November, the Democratic politician expressed optimism about a possible victory for his party in the elections, amid Trump’s declining popularity and rising tensions following the offensive against Iran.

“I believe the Democrats are going to take the House of Representatives and probably also the Senate. This is because the war is a problem for voters, not only because the majority of Americans, around 60%, reject this war but also because it distracts the Government from the things that truly matter to citizens,” he declared, though he declined for now to comment on a possible presidential run in 2028. “First we will focus on 2026,” he insisted.

“I believe the Democrats are going to take the House of Representatives and probably also the Senate. This is because the war is a problem for voters”

Among these issues, he listed the high cost of living: “Everything costs a lot in the United States. The price of housing, rent, vehicles, energy…” he said, before indicating that the president “has done nothing to solve this.”

Regarding the importance of the Latino vote, he stressed that “historically, this is a group of voters that keeps changing. There used to be a solid Democratic base, but that has changed over time, and many of them voted for Trump in 2024,” he complained.

“In Arizona we won because we gained the support of the Latino community and the reason we achieved that support was because we talked about the issues that concerned them, which are the economy and immigration,” he explained, although he admitted that, on many occasions, “Democrats have not known how to address the frustration” of the population.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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“Alprazolam, Alprazolam!” — The Latest Street Cry in Havana

In Cuba, the anti-anxiety pill is now sold retail, like a cigarette or a candy

To the shortness of “peanuts” and the cadence of “coconut candy” there has now arrived a harsher music: “alprazolam, alprazolam.” / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, Natalia López Moya, May 28, 2026 — In the cardboard box, placed on the floor of a doorway as if it were an improvised counter, the blister packs of pills form an unsettling geometry. There are white, pink, green, and yellow tablets, lined up with pharmacy-like neatness, but without lab coats, prescriptions, or questions. Off to one side, a woman smokes while sitting on a low stool, her body slumped forward and her eyes fixed on the movement of passersby. She does not seem to be hiding. Nor does she need to. In today’s Cuba, even controlled medications have learned to sell themselves in broad daylight.

Alprazolam, internationally known as Xanax, a powerful short-acting benzodiazepine used to treat anxiety and panic attacks, has become part of the black-market landscape. It no longer appears only in discreet WhatsApp messages or whispered offers between acquaintances. Now it is hawked on the street alongside loose cigarettes, candy, lighters, and packages of adulterated coffee. What is also new is the retail sale: there is no need to buy the whole blister pack. For 50, 60, or 80 pesos, depending on the place and the buyer’s urgency, anyone can take a pill for the road.

“Take your little pill for the road, don’t leave without this, this helps you live”

The phenomenon is repeating itself in increasingly visible places. On Tulipán Street in Nuevo Vedado; beneath the arcades of Carlos III and Reina in Central Havana; or at the Tejas intersection in Cerro, where everything seems to converge — electric tricycles, street cries, exhaustion, and survival — drug sellers have found continue reading

their clientele. There are no signs or display cases, but neither is there much concealment. One only has to approach, look at the merchandise spread out over cardboard or inside an open shopping bag, and ask. Sometimes not even that: the sales pitch comes to meet you.

Chanting the name of a four-syllable product is not easy. To the brevity of “peanuts” and the cadence of “coconut candy” there has now arrived a rougher music: “alprazolam, alprazolam.” Or, with more salesmanship: “Take your alprazolam, one or two, however many you want.” Near Boyeros, a woman added an even more brutally honest hook: “Take your little pill for the road, don’t leave without this, this helps you live.” The phrase, spoken as casually as someone offering cold water or a croquette sandwich, sums up the country’s emotional state better than any statistic could.

Self-medication, which was always a risk, has become a refuge

There are no published official studies measuring how widespread the consumption of alprazolam bought through clandestine networks has become. Nor are many figures needed to notice that the drug has settled into the routine of a population worn down by blackouts, inflation, uncertainty, and the lack of specialized mental health care. Self-medication, which was always a risk, has become a refuge. A chemical sanctuary, cheap per dose but costly in its consequences.

Cuba has reached a point where, on the way to work or school, someone can buy a cigarette or a pill to endure the day with equal ease. And the gravest thing is not that alprazolam is being sold on the street, but that hearing the street cry advertising it no longer surprises anyone.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Flour Is Not Reaching Ciego de Ávila – and Neither Is Bread

Throughout the month of May, residents of Ávila have had bread on only two days

Bakeries are having to adapt to the new conditions, but can barely manage to produce decent-quality bread. / Tribuna de La Habana

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 29 May 2026 / This May, the people of Ciego de Ávila had bread for two days. That is how extreme the situation is, acknowledged Rafael Pina Joba, Director General of the Food Industry in the province, who described the amount of flour reaching the territory as “negligible.” In an interview with the local outlet Invasor, the official stated that in recent days the quantity of raw material received amounts to just 32 tonnes for the more than 430,000 inhabitants of Ciego de Ávila.

“In the current month, we had planned to deliver between four and five days’ worth of bread for the population,” said Pina, but the allocation received forced a much steeper downward recalculation than expected – and expectations were already more than modest. Public discontent is plain to see, above all because the pastry shops do have baked goods available.

“Very good question,” said Pina, when challenged on this point. “Following the directives that the country has in place, we are obliged as a company to steer ourselves toward new lines of production and to engage with the economic actors that allow us to increase production levels,” he explained. These agreements have enabled a type of flour known as “differentiated” – used for pastry-making – to reach the state industry.

These agreements have enabled a type of flour known as “differentiated” – used for pastry-making – to reach the state industry.

“The core mission of our company is to provide food to the people of Ávila and to be able to compete in the informal market with our products – to ensure that ours have a greater level of acceptance among the public,” the director argued. However, he acknowledged that quantities are scarce and are used almost exclusively, on the instructions of the Ministry of Commerce, for quinceañera cakes. The remainder is distributed in a controlled manner to vulnerable continue reading

communities, he maintained.

The official spoke about bread obtained through the ration book, a situation that is far from new. Until recently, the theoretical daily allowance was 60 grams – 20 grams below the previous weight, though the reduction came with a price adjustment that was poorly compensated by the complete absence of quality – but now even that is a utopia. The shortage of raw materials is compounded by the shortage of electricity.

“Because of the energy” – he said, without elaborating – “we have had to use more than 25 electric ovens in order to carry out the production that prevents the bread from going off, from turning sour, from our output being ruined. And we have tried to recover this production to provide a better service to the population, within our means,” he said. Pina also addressed the question of why dough is prepared in one location and baked in another – a process that likewise has a negative impact on bread quality.

“We would rather not do it that way, because it needs to be a continuous process,” he lamented, but there is no better alternative. “We have had to bring back our wood-fired ovens. And in some locations, during the few hours that production allows, the machines cannot work the dough because of the level of raw materials needed, and at certain moments we have had to move that dough to a unit that has electricity at that particular time in order to prepare it, and then bring it back to the original unit to bake it in the wood-fired ovens,” he explained. Things could be worse – there would otherwise be a risk of having to discard it altogether.

“At this moment we have no freely available bread. We are acquiring a small level of flour through economic actors and through the companies that can supply it to us.”

As for bread sold freely off the ration, that is out of the question. “At this moment we have no freely available bread. We are acquiring a small level of flour through economic actors and through the companies that can supply it to us,” he said. The expectation, nevertheless, is that if production is ever resumed, sales will be managed on a controlled basis.

The director also spoke about how the industry has had to reinvent itself – producing everything from croquettes with cassava, pumpkin and sweet potato extenders, to fried plantain chips and noodle soups. The situation is so outlandish that diversification has extended into areas with no connection whatsoever to the company’s core activity. “We are planning to open a shop selling vehicle parts and components, which will allow us to guarantee the wages of our workers. My company – it may not seem like it – has more than 1,300 employees across the province, and we have a responsibility to them and their families. To give them, at the very least, their minimum wage so that they can keep their households going,” he said.

The industry has a repair and maintenance workshop and is currently negotiating with various companies to lease out its machinery or the services of its workers – an arrangement similar to what it intends to do with the nine vehicles it has standing idle and plans to rent out to private operators.

What the official described illustrates the dramatic situation facing the bread industry, which was already coming from appallingly bad figures. In 2021, 446,500 tonnes of bread were produced across the island, compared with 176,400 tonnes in 2025. The figures show a 60% fall over four years – but everything points to the numbers for 2026 having no parallel whatsoever.

Translated by GH

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Prison Sentence for Immigration Fraud for One of the Military Officers Indicted Alongside Raúl Castro in the U.S.

Cuban pilot Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez was sentenced to seven months in prison after admitting he lied on immigration forms

Luis Raúl González-Pardo, left, in an image included in the prosecution files that led to his conviction for fraud. / American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora

14ymedio biggerEFE/14ymedio, Miami, May 28, 2026 — Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez, a Cuban pilot who was indicted last week alongside former president Raúl Castro for the shootdown of two planes belonging to the organization Brothers to the Rescue, was sentenced this Thursday to seven months in prison in the United States for lying on immigration forms. The sentence comes one week after the defendant, who entered U.S. territory under humanitarian parole, admitted guilt to fraud in obtaining a visa.

The man was already being held in a state prison, so he is expected to be released before that term is completed.

González-Pardo Rodríguez is one of the five military officers whom the U.S. Department of Justice indicted last week, together with Castro, for the deaths of four people — three U.S. citizens and one legal resident, all of Cuban origin — in the 1996 shootdown of the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft. The other military officers are Emilio José Palacio Blanco, José Fidel Gual Barzaga, Raúl Simanca Cárdenas, and Lorenzo Alberto Pérez-Pérez. The indictment includes four counts of murder, conspiracy to kill Americans, and destruction of aircraft.

The U.S. government has not detailed what the next steps might be in the prosecution of Raúl Castro

Unlike González-Pardo Rodríguez, who was already in the United States at the time of the indictment, Castro, 94, remains in Cuba, and the U.S. government has not detailed what the next steps in his prosecution might be.

During the announcement of the indictment last week, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that the former Cuban president would appear before justice “of his own will or by some other means,” though he avoided answering whether Washington was planning an operation in Cuba similar to the one carried out in Venezuela on January 3 to capture then-ruler Nicolás Maduro.

According to Cuba, the attack under scrutiny in this case took place in Cuba’s territorial waters, in legitimate defense and after more than a dozen warnings, and therefore did not violate international law. However, reports from continue reading

the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an autonomous body of the Organization of American States, established that the aircraft were shot down in international airspace.

More recent image of González-Pardo, included in his profile as a repressor by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba. / FHRC

Brothers to the Rescue was a nonprofit organization founded in Miami by José Basulto in the early 1990s. Its members patrolled international waters searching for Cuban rafters attempting to flee the Island, while Havana accused them of violating Cuban airspace and carrying out political provocations.

Subsequent investigations revealed that at least two Cuban agents infiltrated into Brothers to the Rescue provided detailed information about flight routes and schedules to the Cuban government, facilitating the regime’s military operation. In 2003, a U.S. federal court charged a Cuban general and two fighter pilots over the shootdown, but no formal charges were brought at that time against the Castro brothers.

In June 1996, El Nuevo Herald published an audio recording in which Raúl Castro can be heard saying: “I said they should try to shoot them down over the territory, but they entered Havana and left again… Of course, with one of those air-to-air missiles, what comes down is a fireball, and it’s going to fall on the city. Well, shoot them down at sea when they show up.” In the same audio document, the then-head of the Armed Forces speaks of giving “authority” to “five generals.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Actors Defining the Sequence of Change in Cuba

What remains for the regime is to renounce the hegemonic role of the only permitted party and attempt a real opening, even if it appears to be a fraudulent change

The most dynamic parts of the contradiction are, in my view, the governments of Cuba and the United States, despite the fact that the fundamental contradiction lies between the population and the dictatorship. / EFE

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, Reinaldo Escobar, May 28, 2026 — Three actors are currently leading the Cuban drama: the dictatorship in power, the population, and external factors.

Although the regime wants to give the impression that it is a monolithic structure, it is enough to cite its different names, or perhaps masks, to perceive the subtle differences: the Party, the military, the family clan, the State, Parliament, the State Security organs. Suspicion falls on each of them as to who is truly governing the country.

Where it says “the population,” one could say “the citizens,” but that designation should be reserved for those human groups whose members are empowered to challenge authority, organize according to their preferences, and periodically go to the polls to reward or punish politicians. One could also say “the people,” but that is the subject that storms government palaces. For now, we are reduced to being merely the inhabitants of this Island. Here, no one asks how the unions will react or what the students will do.

Where it says “the population,” one could say “the citizens,” but that designation should be reserved for those human groups whose members are empowered to challenge authority

Only intuitively, and with an enormous effort to strip away one’s beliefs, can one define the sectors of the population to place supporters of the process on one side and the dissatisfied on the other.

A more detailed study would divide the supporters into different strata: the Marxist-Leninists convinced that socialism is the correct path; those who for some reason feel benefited; the perennial opportunists; and those who, out of inertia, obey and march wherever they are ordered.

The dissatisfied camp is equally varied: the anti-communists continue reading

convinced that socialism as a doctrine ruins nations; those harmed by some law or measure taken over the last 67 years; and those suffering the immediate consequences (scarcity, blackouts, disconnection) but who still do not have the “political consciousness” to participate in a clearly opposition-oriented initiative, where an undeniable minority is active.

External factors are also divided into two camps: on one side, the Government of the United States exercising its enormous economic, diplomatic, and military power to demand the dictatorship’s capitulation. It is timidly accompanied by some democratic countries in Latin America and by the indecisiveness of the European Union, where the belief still prevails that signed agreements and accords can open a path toward democratization.

On the other side, with a less explicit commitment, are Russia, China, and Iran, with their declarations of unrestricted support for the Havana regime, and among neighboring countries, the supportive hand of Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, joined by a breeding ground of organizations dressed in progressive rhetoric mainly dedicated to confronting, often violently, demonstrations by Cuban exiles abroad. From this chapter of external factors come shipments of food and medicine, cash donations, solar energy installations, and above all applause. They are the deniers of the need for political change. Some for strategic needs, others because they do not want to realize how illusory their illusion about Cuba is.

From the northern neighbor, which struggles with the limits of how far its interference should go, political common sense and trust in the population are expected — a population tired of its condition as mere inhabitants and eager to become citizens peacefully

From this parallelogram of forces, where each side pulls and pushes in different directions, a result must eventually emerge.

The most dynamic parts of the contradiction are, in my view, the governments of Cuba and the United States, despite the fact that the fundamental contradiction lies between the population and the dictatorship.

What remains for the regime is to renounce the hegemonic role of the only permitted party and attempt a real opening, even if it appears to be a fraudulent change.

From the northern neighbor, which struggles with the limits of how far its interference should go, political common sense and trust in the population are expected — a population tired of its condition as mere inhabitants and eager to become citizens peacefully, but on the verge of reacting angrily as a people.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The U.S. Is Betting on a “Slow-Motion” Collapse of the Cuban Regime

  • The digital outlet Axios cites a State Department source: with the heat, irritation will grow and people will take to the streets
  • “The president does not want troops on the ground for more than 48 hours”
“It’s going to be hot. People won’t have electricity. Food will spoil without refrigeration. People will be more irritated. They may take to the streets. And then what will happen?” / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, May 28, 2026 — The leaks from the U.S. State Department to Axios that so irritate Havana continue unabated. The latest installment, published this Thursday, again speaks of an open-ended scenario in which all options are being considered. Apparently, President Donald Trump trusts that the regime will slowly stew in its own juices, a fairly literal metaphor considering negotiators are talking about a summer in which heat itself will become another suffocating factor that could push the population to explode.

“We do not want to end the regime just yet. There is a method to this, in stages,” one of the sources said. The Administration expects a collapse in the coming months through a strategy the official describes as “accelerationist,” although that definition weakens when he explains that the pressure will be applied “in slow motion.” “Trump wants to exhaust every tool at his disposal. But at this moment, he does not have as many as before,” the source added, maintaining that the president is in no hurry and is focused on Iran, an issue that becomes more complicated the closer it seems to a resolution.

“We have a broad range of resources, especially regarding sanctions and their enforcement. And more measures are coming,” the source said, without clarifying which additional sectors might be affected.

“We have a broad range of resources, especially regarding sanctions and their enforcement. And more measures are coming”

One of the most enigmatic statements the sources gave Axios was the suggestion that there could indeed be someone within the regime capable of steering a transition, although the operation has not yet been approved. “The problem is not that there is no Delcy in Cuba. There could be people continue reading

with a similar profile. But Trump has not yet given the green light to formally get involved,” one official maintained.

According to these sources, there are two other issues that distinguish Cuba from Venezuela. Washington believes that an operation to capture Raúl Castro — criminally charged in the U.S. a week ago for the shootdown of the Brothers to the Rescue planes — similar to the one carried out against Nicolás Maduro would be useless because Raúl Castro already carried out a transition 30 years ago “toward a less authoritarian regime,” and nothing would change. From the official’s remarks, it is understood that the U.S. problem with Cuba is the current system’s economic “incompetence,” without mentioning political aspects.

The other issue is that the embargo is subject to legislative control, meaning the presidency has more limited room to maneuver. “This prevents Trump from normalizing relations with a new government through executive order, as he did in Venezuela, where sanctions were imposed by the U.S. executive branch,” the sources reflected, adding that the interests of Cuban-American representatives play a role here. “They hold hardline positions on Cuba that reflect the conservative exile community in South Florida.”

Removing Venezuelan support has been key to the U.S. strategy, they added. The rest has continued through additional sanctions, and summer, they hope, will do its part. “It’s going to be hot. People won’t have electricity. Food will spoil without refrigeration. People will be more irritated. They may take to the streets. And then what will happen? I do not see the president doing nothing if there is repression,” one source said.

But another of those consulted disagrees. “The president does not want troops on the ground for more than 48 hours. It is a brewing quagmire. This could get complicated.”

Be that as it may, all plans are on the table, as Politico insisted this Wednesday in an article stating that “strategically positioned assets are laying the groundwork for military action, from capturing Havana’s leadership, similar to what was done with Nicolás Maduro, to a series of precision strikes.” “Everything is on the table, but there is no planned or imminent invasion,” they confirmed to Axios. “When the president gives the order, we will be ready for anything.”

“We will talk with them, work on it; we want something good for the Cuban people and, hopefully, there will be a good outcome for them. There has to be”

Amid this situation, the carrot-and-stick strategy remains alive. The U.S. secretary said this Wednesday that he trusts negotiations will succeed. “We will talk with them, work on it; we want something good for the Cuban people and, hopefully, there will be a good outcome for them. There has to be,” Rubio said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House chaired by Trump.

That strategy can also be seen in the offer of $100 million in humanitarian aid that Rubio offered Havana last week and which it accepted. Like the aid sent after Hurricane Melissa, it will be channeled through the Catholic Church. “If we had wanted to accelerate the collapse, we would not have sent any aid,” a senior government official told Axios. This is, he said, a “campaign to show people that they can have a better life if the regime gets out of their way.”

“The political situation is complex on both sides [of the Florida Straits],” another official concluded. “But we have time. They do not.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Gaesa is Denounced Before the UN for Limiting Access to Food in Cuba

“The rent-seeking logic of the military elite in Cuba hinders the increase of national production,” says Food Monitor

In the country, barely 29% manage to have two meals a day and 7% never eat meat / Granma

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, May 27, 2026 — The NGO Food Monitor Program filed a complaint this Tuesday before the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food against the all-powerful military conglomerate Business Administration Group (Gaesa) — recently sanctioned by the U.S. — for controlling the country’s food resources and limiting access to them.

The document, prepared in response to a UN call to report examples of “concentration of corporate power in global food systems,” states that Gaesa “significantly limits the autonomy and popular sovereignty of socioeconomic actors, reflected mainly in the food system, impacted by the monopoly over foreign currency, imports, and food distribution and commercialization chains,” which has turned access to food into a “mechanism for extracting foreign currency, using the Cuban diaspora as a market.”

It also stresses that “the rent-seeking logic of the military elite in Cuba hinders the increase of national production.” Food Monitor Program explains in its complaint that it has warned “about the government’s lack of interest in resolving the production deficit: 80% of food is imported, while national food production has fallen by 67% over the last five years in favor of food imports.”

Eighty percent of food is imported, while domestic production has fallen by 67%

This, it adds, “limits citizens’ access to basic products, especially when these are sold in foreign currencies inaccessible to many Cubans, and restricts the development of autonomous business and corporate initiatives, and the dynamism of the national economy, in favor of enriching the ruling elite.”

Furthermore, the complaint points out that companies under the control of military figures, such as Flora y Fauna S.A., directed by Commander Guillermo García Frías, “are evidence of the advance of administrative capitalism in the country. Companies under its leadership centralize and restrict popular access to natural food continue reading

resources.”

Regarding this company, the report notes that “under the legal structure of heritage conservation, its units allow the exclusive economic control of species and products such as meats, seafood, and charcoal, which the same company exports in competitive markets.”

That monopoly has pushed independent Cuban producers out of the picture. In the complaint, they anonymously describe their exclusion from decisions about their own work: “It is not fair that we, the people who live on and work the land, do not have control over what we produce, how we do it, or to whom we sell it.”

“It is not fair that we, the people who live on and work the land, do not have control over what we produce”

As for the decision-making process within the sector, farmers state that “organizations have had their space in some agricultural policy discussions, but in the end, it seems that decisions come from above and we are only there to fill seats. Sometimes it feels like they only use us to legitimize what had already been decided.”

Small private entrepreneurs face price caps, tax increases, import restrictions, and provincial bureaucracy that blocks their development, the organization accuses.

The NGO also highlights that, despite “clear violations of the socioeconomic rights of producers in Cuba, including recorded acts of repression and intimidation based on ideological criteria, there are no lawsuits advancing through national legal channels, nor any rulings against the corporations mentioned in this document, which are strongly backed by the ruling leadership.”

There are “clear violations of the socioeconomic rights of producers in Cuba, including recorded acts of repression and intimidation”

In Cuba, Food Monitor recalls, there is no separation between the Executive and Legislative branches, “which means the latter functions as legal support and a legitimizing apparatus for official policies.”

The report warns that hunger is worsening in Cuba, stating “that 96% of the population has lost its purchasing power for food,” according to its 2024 survey, in a country where barely 29% manage to have two meals a day.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

“These Are the Same ‘Balitas’, But in Dollars”: A New Propane Sales Business Emerges in Cuba

The KMCERO platform appears to be a private small business, but it uses the logistics of the state company Cupet

A 10-kilogram liquefied gas cylinder is being offered for 24 dollars. / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, Darío Hernández, May 27, 2026 – “Those balitas, just as you see them, are from here. The same ones they distribute through the ration book system. Don’t let them fool you.” The remark came from a woman standing in line in San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana, while several customers waited to pick up a propane cylinder purchased online in dollars. She pointed to the usual balitas, the same ones that for decades have circulated through Cuba’s state liquefied gas distribution network.

In theory, that product arrives through a regulated system. Each contracted customer receives one when their turn comes, hands over the empty one, and waits for the next cycle. But delays are frequent, and many families spend weeks waiting for a delivery that can determine the rhythm of an entire household. Without propane, cooking becomes an obstacle course, especially with the increase in blackouts.

That overloaded and sluggish system now has a parallel outlet. On the KMCERO platform, presented as a digital marketplace for petroleum derivatives, a 10-kilogram liquefied gas cylinder is being sold for 24 dollars. The buyer must hand over another empty cylinder in good condition. Payment is made with Clásica, AIS, Tropical, Visa, or Mastercard cards. The operation excludes the Cuban peso, even though the product is the same one many families are waiting for through the regulated system.

When asked whether other pickup sites would be available, the person in charge replied that there were plans to open one more. / 14ymedio

The only pickup point visible so far is in a small alley at Ciudadmar and 7th Street, in San Miguel del Padrón. When asked whether other pickup sites would be available, the person in charge replied that there were plans to open one more, although it was still “in process.”

About 15 people, each carrying an empty balita, stand in a discreet line. One question circulates among them: if someone buys now in dollars, continue reading

will they later be able to use that same cylinder once distribution through the ration book system resumes?

One woman answered without hesitation. “Last time, as I remember, when they distributed balitas, nobody asked for the numbers anymore. You handed one over and that was it. Besides, if half the population is now going to buy them here, it’s obvious they’ll allow it.” She then added the detail that most concerned those present: “They’re not like the white ones that Supermarket23 used to send; these are the same ones from the regular service.”

The comparison with Supermarket23, another foreign-currency shopping platform used by Cubans inside and outside the Island, helps place the new business in context. There, a balita can cost around 30 dollars. The KMCERO one costs 24, although it requires traveling to the pickup point. For those without a compatible card, the final cost rises. A man sitting at the site explained that he had to buy dollars from a friend through a Clásica card, so he ended up paying more.

“To get a balita, you have to be ready at 7:00 am, do everything quickly, because the cylinders disappear immediately.” / 14ymedio

The website adds another obstacle: availability. According to reports collected by this newspaper at the delivery point, the cylinders sell out quickly. “To get a balita, you have to be ready at 7:00 am, do everything quickly, because the balitas disappear immediately,” one customer commented. Even after paying, customers do not receive the product right away. Pickup is scheduled for the following day.

The supplier listed on KMCERO is Progas. However, many questions surround that company. The website does not provide a clear explanation of who is behind the operation. The “Who We Are” section is either inaccessible or fails to provide enough information. The commercial brand appears on one side, the platform on another, and the promotion comes from state-linked entities.

That last detail is key. KMCERO was promoted by Tecnomática together with the state SME TM-NEXGEN as a virtual store for purchasing fuels and lubricants in Cuba. Tecnomática is part of the business ecosystem linked to Cupet, the state conglomerate that heads the petroleum sector on the Island. The platform itself markets products associated with fuel, oils, and gas, a business that requires permits, specialized transportation, secure storage, and access to infrastructure rarely available to a small private enterprise.

“What exactly does Progas contribute besides a new label and a way to charge in dollars?” / 14ymedio

Suspicion grows when examining the details closely. Customers hand over cylinders identical to those used in the state system and receive similar ones in return. The logistics point to already existing facilities. The transportation observed by neighbors and customers resembles that historically used by Cupet. None of those elements alone proves that Progas is a front for the state company. Together, however, they sketch an operation difficult to present as an independent private business.

“If the product, the cylinders, the logistics, and the promotion belong to the state system, what exactly does Progas contribute besides a new label and a way to charge in dollars?” asks one customer while waiting in line.

Progas appears precisely within a gray area that several observers of the Cuban economy have been pointing out for years: the creation or use of formally private companies to operate where state entities carry a poor commercial reputation or seek to evade U.S. sanctions. Under that model, a company with the appearance of a non-state actor can import fuel, hire services, or present itself to foreign suppliers as an independent business, even though in practice it depends on state assets, permits, logistics, or decisions.

What is clear is that the balitas can no longer be obtained in national currency. / 14ymedio

In strategic sectors such as fuel, where official control has historically been nearly absolute, an opaque brand forces observers to look beyond the commercial name. The question is not only who delivers the cylinder, but who owns the product, the containers, the trucks, the warehouses, and the money entering from each sale.

No one knows where the gas comes from, whether from the Energas plant in Varadero or from a private import operation in partnership with the Cuban state, the only economic actor authorized to charge in dollars. What is clear is that the balitas can no longer be obtained in national currency.

For Cuban families, the immediate answer lies not in corporate documents but in the kitchen. Those with cards, internet access, and foreign currency can try to buy. Those dependent on salaries paid in pesos must continue waiting for the regulated distribution. The balita that once formed part of a rationed system now appears in a digital store, with another name, another currency, and one unanswered question: who is really collecting the money for the gas?

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Canadian Chain Blue Diamond Reopens Three Hotels in Varadero to Attract Cuban-Americans

The company seeks options to offset the effects of the collapse of international tourism

The move comes despite the dramatic fall of 55.8% in international visitors during April / ‘Sol de Cuba’

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 28 May 2026 / The Canadian hotel chain Blue Diamond reopened three resorts this week on the beaches of Varadero, despite the dramatic drop in tourism (55.8% fewer arrivals in the first four months of 2026 compared to the same period the previous year). The announcement was initially disseminated in brief form by the Havanatur agency and picked up by the official outlet Sol de Cuba, which reported that on 22 May the Royalton Hicacos-Varadero – a five-star all-inclusive hotel with sea-view rooms and diving programmes – resumed operations.

The other two properties that reopened are the Resonance Musique, a four-star hotel offering sports courts and an extensive themed dining offer in addition to its beach, designed for groups and families, which reopened last Monday – the same day as the Resonance Blu Varadero, also four-star, “with direct beach access” and other services. The specialist outlet Reportur noted this Wednesday that the move appears aimed at attracting domestic tourists.

“We are preparing new incentives to increase arrivals of Cubans living abroad; we want to develop that market,” Lessner Gomez, Director General of Marketing at the Ministry of Tourism, highlighted in April. continue reading

“We are preparing new incentives to increase arrivals of Cubans living abroad; we want to develop that market”

In an interview with Sol de Cuba, he said the aim was to boost the sector during the country’s holiday season. “We have done extremely important work to create every facility for Cubans living abroad and also for their families,” he added.

He also reported that the ministry had designed special programmes in Havana, Pinar del Rio and Varadero, including car rental and hotel services tailored to the needs of those travelling to the island to be reunited with their families.

On the subject of international tourism, the official denied that the sector’s collapse – far below pre-COVID-19 pandemic figures – is due to quality issues. Instead, he used the opportunity to blame “the laws and sanctions that the United States Government” has imposed on Cuba. “Otherwise, we would today have a peak season higher than last year’s, which was the trend that had been shown in January.”

His optimism, however, collides with the cold hard figures from the Cuban Government itself. In 2025, the island closed the year with barely 1.8 million international visitors – the worst figure since 2002, excluding the pandemic years. The hotel occupancy rate fell to 21.5% in the first half of the year, and the main source markets, Canada and Russia, also declined. Far off are the 4.7 million tourists reached in 2018, during the thaw with the United States.

Of last year’s international visitors, 754,000 were Canadian – the main source of foreign travellers to Cuba – representing a 12.4% drop compared to 2024

Of last year’s international visitors, 754,000 were Canadian – the main source of foreign travellers to Cuba – representing a 12.4% decline compared to 2024, according to official Cuban figures.

Blue Diamond’s properties, along with other major hotel chains, began to close last February due to a “critical shortage of fuel” for aircraft flying to Cuba, which led Canadian airlines – the source of the majority of their guests – to suspend their flights to the island.

Both Blue Diamond and the main foreign companies managing properties on the island were forced to close the majority of their hotels – already half-empty despite being peak season – and to concentrate resources in just a few of them.

Translated by GH

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

Cuba’s Government Calls the Impact of US Sanctions “Devastating” and Pins Its Hopes on China

The drinking water system and transport have not ground to a complete halt thanks to probable fuel deliveries imported from Texas and Florida by private SMEs

In big cities, any failure of a booster pump or re-pumping system due to lack of electricity immediately affects thousands of people. / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger 14ymedio, Madrid, 28 May 2026 / As if the lack of electricity weren’t enough, the shortage of running water is emerging as the more serious problem for the Cuban population, with unpredictable consequences for public health. “It is one of the sectors hardest hit by the blockade, being among the country’s biggest energy consumers,” said Antonio Rodríguez Rodríguez, president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), on Wednesday during the Mesa Redonda programme on Cuban Television. One of the most recent difficulties facing the institution is the lack of financing and suppliers’ fear of falling foul of the new sanctions, the official revealed.

Until recently, the state enterprise was making annual imports of close to 100 million dollars, but in the past year it managed to import only a tenth of that. “Today we have no operating credit,” he stated — a consequence of the sanctions imposed by the US on 1 May, compounded by the withdrawal of regular suppliers. “Others who still hold contracts are in a wait-and-see mode while they assess the legal implications of doing business with Cuba, as well as the banking obstacles to processing payments and the disruption of the maritime transport of supplies by international shipping companies,” he added.

Rodríguez said that everything possible is being directed towards recovering capacity, yet even so there are “around 2.7 million people affected on average by difficulties in the water supply” — not always the same territories or the same people. “They say they blockade the country because we supposedly violate human rights. And isn’t water a human right? Because every day their genocidal measures prevent that vital liquid from continue reading

reaching Cuban homes,” the official protested.

Among the biggest technical problems arising from the fuel shortage are unblocking pipes and cleaning cesspits, the tanker-truck service, fixing leaks, and the logistics of chemicals for purifying water

Among the biggest technical problems arising from the fuel shortage, he said, are unblocking pipes and cleaning cesspits, the tanker-truck service, fixing leaks, and the logistics of chemicals for purifying water. The enterprise receives just over a third of the fuel it needs. “With that 37% we’ve been muddling through, looking for alternatives to minimise the impact,” he admitted, without explaining where those reserves come from — reserves which at this point can only be being drawn from private-sector imports, which the Government itself described just days ago as insufficient for industrial-scale use.

Moreover, he continued, the lack of electricity is fatal for pumping. Cuba has 3,331 pumping stations that need to operate between 18 and 24 hours a day, but some operate for only two — “almost as if the water only flows while filling the pipe.”

In big cities, any failure of a booster pump or re-pumping system due to lack of electricity immediately affects thousands of people. “If the Marianao booster doesn’t have water, a significant part of the city goes without; the same happens if the El Gato or Palatino pumps fail,” he said, referring to Havana.

Of the 480 most important pumping stations in the country, which supply between 70% and 80% of the population, only 145 are on circuits protected from blackouts, and 73 have generators that are today themselves suffering from the fuel shortage. To make matters worse, frequency and voltage fluctuations are increasing failures across the entire pipeline and equipment network.

Of the 480 most important pumping stations in the country, only 145 are on circuits protected from blackouts

In these circumstances, work has gone into repairing domestic equipment — 17 pumps were imported but 245 were repaired on the island — and switching the existing grid to solar. So far there are 841 solar-powered stations serving around 500,000 people, and negotiations are under way to add 446 more, which would represent 37% of the total. In addition, he said, the plan is to add a further 520, bringing the solar share to 52% overall. Rodríguez did not mention with whom these agreements are being made, though it seems likely that China will be the supplier — as the world leader in the sector and a country with which Cuba has struck energy deals beyond the current solar parks.

During his appearance, the INRH president was joined by the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, who returned to the drastic cuts announced just over a week ago. Supply is so scarce that, he warned, ticket sales are being suspended — both at agencies and via the APK Viajando app — until the authorities work out how to prioritise travel for medical or family emergencies. The official acknowledged the risks of corruption and arbitrary decision-making that this decision might bring, but concluded there is no other option at this point.

On the subject of air transport — which has been domestic only since February — Rodríguez Dávila referred to the cancellation of Cubana de Aviación’s contract with the Spanish airline Plus Ultra, whose aircraft had covered the Havana–Santiago de Cuba route. The rest are being kept going “with great effort,” he said, as are all airports and seaports. With the bare minimum of fuel available — which, again, can presumably only be coming from private-sector imports — the absolute priority, he said, will be transporting food from the main ports to prevent shortages, followed by healthcare services, haemodialysis, and special education.

Rodríguez Dávila referred to the cancellation of Cubana de Aviación’s contract with the Spanish airline Plus Ultra, which covered the Havana–Santiago de Cuba route

He also described local transport as “deeply deficient” and said there is no alternative but to promote the use of electric tricycles and begin a census to legalise and certify vehicles assembled from parts, in offices that will run on solar panels to avoid disruption from blackouts. He also announced a long-term strategy involving the foreign-currency fund created two years ago with revenue from the sale of petrol in dollars, which until now has been used to set up solar stations and procure electric vehicles — including the 200 that are due to come into service for haemodialysis patients.

The government’s Mesa Redonda TV program had opened with more familiar ground: a review of the current situation with Rubén Campos Olmo, Director-General of the Electrical Union (UNE), who described as “devastating” the impact of the sanctions decreed by the US on 29 January banning fuel deliveries to Cuba. There was little that Cubans don’t already know and live with every day. Distributed generation that is not available now accounts for more than 50% of the total, averaging some 1,400 megawatts. “When the sun goes down, the system is left with only the output from the thermal plants and gas: just over 1,100, sometimes 1,200 MW, depending on how many thermal units are out of service at any given moment,” he said.

Campos pointed out that the 100,000 tonnes of crude donated by Russia proved that when raw materials are available the situation improves, and lamented that access to components for the thermoelectric plants is becoming ever more complicated. “Unless these coercive measures are reversed, electricity generation in the country will remain in a delicate balance, dependent on domestic crude, gas, and renewable energy, well below what the population and the economy need,” he warned.

As the sole lifeline he cited China — also glossing over the fuel arriving via private importers — which last year extended a credit for metals and parts intended to improve units 5 and 6 at the Renté plant in Santiago de Cuba, and unit 5 at Mariel, as well as Nuevitas, in July. By that point they hope to have added 1,000 MW more to the grid. Insufficient, but not negligible — provided there is no certainty that another breakdown won’t occur at the same time.

Translated by GH

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.

‘100% Cuban’ Products Sold in Dollars in a New State Store

Wasteful use of lighting and air conditioning in the new store opened in Havana by a state partnership associated with a Slovak company

Entrance to the ‘Hecho en Cuba’ [Made in Cuba] store, in Havana’s Cerro municipality. / 14ymedio
14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, Natalia López Moya/Juan Diego Rodríguez, May 28, 2026 – Brightly lit and with the air conditioning running at maximum power, the new Hecho en Cuba 100% store seems oblivious to the severe energy crisis the country is experiencing. The business, located in the Trimagen complex, the film division of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), in Havana’s Plaza municipality, was inaugurated this Tuesday with great ostentation.

The company’s social media accounts documented the event. The firm appearing to be in charge is Proxcor S.A., a joint venture formed by the Slovak company Proxenta and the Cuban Corporación Alimentaria S.A. (Coralsa), dedicated to the commercialization of food and beverages through companies such as Los Portales, Bucanero, Bravo, Papas & Company, and Stella. The post quickly filled with comments, mainly asking about prices and payment methods, but the replies were unclear.

“If everything is made in Cuba, they should sell according to the salaries we earn in Cuba and of course in national currency,” one user remarked with barely concealed irony. “Thank you for your comment, we will take it into account,” was the response.

The facilities are excellent, but they offer little product variety. / 14ymedio

It is worth remembering that Proxenta arrived in Cuba in 2019 through the creation of Proxcor S.A. in Villa Clara, with a 25-year contract for confectionery production, and later expanded its partnership with the Cuban State by founding Baracocoa S.A. for the processing and commercialization of local cocoa. The decision dealt a blow to local farmers who had temporarily been allowed to enter the cocoa business, a highly profitable sector in foreign currency.

During a visit to the new store on Ayestarán Street this Wednesday, 14ymedio confirmed what commenters feared: the store only sells in dollars, and payment can be made in cash, with foreign cards, or with the Clásica prepaid card. The place has the unmistakable atmosphere of state power, with some employees dressed in Cimex uniforms.

Beers for sale at Hecho en Cuba 100%. / 14ymedio

The facilities are excellent, yes, but they offer few products. “Of course, if they sell what is produced in Cuba, this little bit is all there is,” observed one customer passing shelves packed with the same product. Bravo cold cuts, Cristal and Bucanero beers, Findy mayonnaise, Ciego Montero soft drinks, flour from Unión Molinera de Cuba… The brands, indeed, were not lying: merchandise from the battered national production system.

A woman visiting the establishment for the first time was especially surprised by the variety of Cuban coffee brands, including Cubita, Arriero, and Regil, something unimaginable for a long time in other stores. The selection was completed with small black cups bearing the word Cubita. “It’s been years and years since I saw this for sale!”

The prices, meanwhile, are not for everyone. A tube of ham for 13 dollars or a one-kilogram package of coffee for 16 dollars gives an idea of the costs; an arepa mix costs 4 dollars, and six small cups cost 20.

At the Bazar A&M branch on Infanta and Carlos III in Central Havana, employees were sitting idle.  The sign reads: There is no milk”/ 14ymedio

One cashier slowly and carefully wrapped a customer’s purchase. The customer told her: “Don’t take too long, in case the power goes out and I can’t pay with my card,” but the worker reassured her enthusiastically: “The power almost never goes out here, and when it does, they restore it very quickly.” “Do you have a generator?” the shopper asked. “No, but they almost never cut our electricity.”

In contrast to this privileged situation, the commercial heart of Central Havana looked gloomy that same day. At the Bazar A&M branch on Infanta and Carlos III, employees were sitting idle. “No milk,” “no milk,” “no milk,” repeated three signs discouraging customers from asking for anything.

Fress location on Carlos III, without electricity and therefore without cold soft drinks. / 14ymedio

At Plaza de Carlos III, the power went out in the middle of the morning rush of customers. The darkened stores, without cold drinks to relieve the heat of these days, were buzzing with complaints from the workers themselves. One single topic monopolized conversations: the sleepless night caused by the blackout. “We only had twenty minutes of electricity at two in the morning, and we had to start pumping water from the cistern to the tank,” one cashier told a colleague.

At Fress, the first private business established in Plaza de Carlos III, employees said they did not know if they would be able to continue working today. “There’s no fuel for the shopping center’s generator. They say the power went out last night and they couldn’t turn it on again.”

The blackouts, at least in principle, do not distinguish between state and private businesses: they affect everyone equally. Except for Proxcor’s new store.

Plaza de Carlos III in blackout since yesterday. / 14ymedio

Translated by Regina Anavy

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.