May 2025 – Page 2 – Translating Cuba

Fidel Castro’s Widow and Sons Make an Appearance on Cuban TV

Dalia Soto del Valle, away from the cameras since the death of the leader, was covered with a hat and mask.

Soto seated between two of her sons, Alexis and Alex Castro, during the commemoration of “Fidel and Religion.” / Canal Caribe

14ymedio, Havana, 24 May 2025 — Dalia Soto del Valle, Fidel Castro’s widow who has not been seen in public since the Cuban leader’s funeral in 2016, briefly appeared on Cuban Television on Friday along with several of her children. Their appearance during a talk by Brazilian priest Frei Betto in Havana lasted only a few seconds. Dressed in yellow, and wearing a skullcap and face mask, she looked decidedly unwell.

At her side were Alexis Castro, whose frequent posting on X abruptly ended last year “on the advice of doctors;” Alex Castro, the Cuban dictator’s longtime official photographer and father of Sandro Castro, the focus of multiple online scandals; and Antonio Castro, the former physician of the Cuban baseball team.

Except for Sandro Castro’s online antics and the occasional interview that Alex Castro gives to promote an exhibition or pay homage to his father, Soto del Valle and her sons have been almost entirely absent from the public eye.

Without identifying them, Cuban Television’s cameras briefly focused on them sitting in the audience during a celebration of the 40th anniversary of “Fidel and Religion,” a book-length interview Castro gave to Frei Betto in which the Cuban leader recalled his religious upbringing and summarized his stance on leftist Christian groups in Latin America. In his exchange with the Dominican friar, Castro made no mention of the Communist Party’s systematic persecution of the continue reading

Catholic Church and other denominations it has monitored since 1959.

The event took place in the Fidel Castro Center in Havana’s Vedado district. In addition to Soto and her sons, attendees included a number of religious figures with ties to the regime. Notable among them were Sava Gagloev, a Russian Orthodox priest with close ties to Patriarch Kiril and Vladimir Putin.

Published in May 1985, “Fidel and Religion”did not receive a commemorative edition or even a mere reprint to mark this anniversary. During the event, Betto had to make do with an old copy of his book from the Fidel Castro Center library.

The last time the Castro-Soto family was seen filmed was during Fidel Castro’s funeral in Santiago de Cuba. Dalia Soto and her children paid their respects at the dictator’s grave while relegating Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart — the first-born son from his earlier marriage to Mirta Díaz-Balart, the daughter of a prominent anti-Castro political family — to a minor role. That son committed suicide a year later.

Dalis Soto appears alongside a frail Fidel Castro in official photos taken during a visit by Pope Francis. Always a shadowy figure, she did not marry Castro until after the death of Celia Sánchez, his secretary, who was also rumored to be his lover. A native of Trinidad, Soto shunned public life. Her face was unknown to the public until the Special Period, when she discreetly began attending official events.

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Cuba’s Public Prosecutor’s Office Asks for Four Years in Prison for Professor Alina Bárbara López

The academic and her colleague Jenny Victoria Pantoja Torres reject the charges and denounce a politically motivated setup.

Lopez is surprised to be portrayed in the complaint as a “female version of Bruce Lee” / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, May 26, 2025 — Almost a year after the events, the Cuban Public Prosecutor’s Office has presented its provisional conclusions in the case of dissident intellectual Alina Bárbara López Hernández and her colleague Jenny Victoria Pantoja Torres, accused of several crimes following an incident with Interior Ministry officials on June 18, 2024. The complaint was published by López herself on her Facebook profile, where she calls the process a “judicial farce” and denounces the political nature of her arrest.

According to the document presented by prosecutor Ana Lilian Caballero Arango before the Criminal Section of the People’s Municipal Court of Matanzas, it is requested that an oral trial be opened against both women, who will have to answer for the crimes of attack, disobedience and disrespect, according to the Cuban Penal Code.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office requests a joint sentence of four years’ imprisonment for López Hernández, replaced by correctional work without internment, in addition to a ban on leaving the country and other ancillary sanctions. In the case of Pantoja Torres, a three-year sentence is requested, also replaced by correctional work.

650 Cuban pesos for a damaged uniform and 5,000 pesos for hair extensions

Both must also repair alleged material damage to the officer who filed the complaint: 650 Cuban pesos for a damaged uniform and 5,000 pesos for hair extensions, according to the indictment.

López denounces that the text presented by the prosecutor is “badly written”, full of errors, and qualifies its content as a script of “action and violence” in which she herself is represented as a “female version of Bruce Lee.” According to the intellectual, the official narrative falsifies the facts continue reading

and conceals the real intent: repression against political dissent in Cuba.

“We were the ones beaten, attacked and treated like animals. I feared for my life that day”

“We were the ones beaten, attacked and treated like animals. I feared for my life that day,” wrote López, who claims to continue suffering physical consequences of the aggression, including inflammation of the inner ear, which causes balance problems and vertigo and can lead, in some cases, to hearing loss.

According to her account, both she and Pantoja were intercepted while traveling to Havana in exercise of their civil rights. The arrest, she says, was ordered by state security agencies, although the prosecutor tries to present it as an incident with no political connotation.

López questions the use of common crimes to cover up what she considers political persecution. “The infamous script of prosecutor Caballero Arango aims to strip what happened of its political nature, which is more than obvious,” she says. “It is a repeated strategy: transform the exercise of constitutional rights into common crimes in order to maintain that there are no political prisoners in Cuba”.

Also an essayist and university professor, she has been one of the most visible critical voices in contemporary Cuban thought. For several years, she has been systematically denouncing violations of fundamental rights on the Island and promoting dialogue and democratic transformation in the country.

“Dictatorships cannot disguise themselves as democracies, even if they try”

Although there is still no date for the trial, López warns that when it takes place, “it will be the 2019 Constitution that will sit, once again, in the dock of the accused.” The Cuban Constitution recognizes rights such as freedom of expression and association, but also establishes the irrevocable nature of the socialist, one-party system, which for the accused constitutes an unsurmountable contradiction.

“Dictatorships cannot disguise themselves as democracies, even if they try,” she says in her complaint, which ends with a call for solidarity: “We will need support and accompaniment in this shameful process”.

Alina Bárbara López and Jenny Victoria Pantoja have said that in the next few days they will publish a joint statement on their position regarding the prosecution’s charges.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Postal Service Handles Billions of Dollars Worth of Shipments But Is Out of Stamps

If it weren’t for the Cubans abroad and their constant shipments of goods, the company’s workers would not have jobs.

Post office customers usually only have one objective: to pick up packages sent to them by relatives overseas. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, 24 May 2025 — In a city where people must wait in ever longer lines to buy things, it is surprising to see almost no one at local post offices. The lack of stamps and other supplies for mailing correspondence has turned these establishments into nothing more than pick-up locations for packages sent from abroad. Instead of letters and telegrams, these spaces are now filled with packages of powdered milk and medicine.

At the post office on Medio Street where, just a few years ago, lines used to begin forming early in the morning, it is now common to see workers looking bored. “No, we still don’t have stamps,” repeats one employee, who answers the same question dozens of times a day. “We’re suffering from neglect nationwide,” she says, pointing to the unreliable stamp supply as one of the most obvious signs of decline.

“It seems old-fashioned but some people still send letters, though most who come here need stamps to mail in some paperwork,” she adds. “A magical universe in every collection,” reads a sign pasted on the wall, intended to entice stamp collectors. Meanwhile, the display cases and shelves stand empty. There are no stamps, envelopes, or boxes to send to other provinces, much less glue, pens, or paper for anyone wishing to compose a letter on the spot.

Most people, who typically do not spend much time in here, have only one objective: to pick up packages sent to them by relatives overseas. “We have become a pick-up location and that is what keeps us open,” adds the employee. If not for the constant flow of packages from the Cuban emigre community, Cuba’s postal workers would be unemployed. In 2024 alone, continue reading

the agency received and processed 503,232 shipments from abroad.

“We’ve become a pick-up location, and that’s what keeps us open,” says one employee. / 14ymedio

Since 2021 the Ministry of Finance and Prices has assumed that Cubans will buy from abroad what the state does not import. So every three months the tariff on imported medications, cleaning supplies, food and electrical generators is suspended. All these products can enter the country duty-free provided they are not intended for resale. International parcel delivery has been one of the areas that has benefited most from this measure. The steady flow of shipments, however, has not had a spillover affect on the profits of other postal services.

“Some customers complain that we are out of stamps and they are completely right. All I can say is that we might get them sometime next week but I know perfectly well that there is no short-term solution,” the employee explains. One of those irate customers was complaining on Monday — shouting and slamming the door on his way out — after being told that, for weeks, the post office has been out of the 20-peso stamps he needs to mail some notarized documents.

“When we get stamps in those denominations, they come in small quantities and sell out immediately,” an employee at another, less centrally located and even less well-off post office explained. “The busiest days are when we have to pay pensions to retirees.” The employees themselves suggest that customers look for stamps on the black market. “They have everything there,” the employee said.

“I am looking for three 10-peso stamps. I need them urgently,” writes a desperate internet user in one of the many Facebook groups offering everything from household appliances to vacation packages. The request has garnered hundreds of responses in just a few hours. “I have 10, 20, and 1,000-peso stamps. I take transfers but you have to hurry. They’re running out,” says one of the informal stamp sellers.

To discourage scalpers, the Cuban postal service imposed strict rationing. “Sales will be limited to no more than three stamps per person in 10, 20, 40, 50, 125, 500 and 1,000-peso denominations. For five 5-peso stamps, the limit will be five stamps per person,” the postal service stated in an official announcement. But as with so many other controlled products, private brokers have found ways to circumvent the rules.

“They have contacts who are administrators and postal workers. When the stamps come in, they are the first to find out, even before the stamps make it to the sales counter,” complains a Matanzas resident. She grew tired of waiting and decided to buy the stamps she needed for a passport through informal channels. “I had to pay double. For the 2,500-pesos worth of stamps I needed, I ended up paying 5,000.”

Some customers, like 79-year-old Simón, who picked up a package at the post office on Medio Street on Monday, connect the dots and complain about the contradictions of the Cuban postal service’s monopoly. “They get thousands of packages every week. Our relatives abroad pay a high price for this service and sometimes they don’t even have a pen to sign the delivery form,” he explains. “Why don’t they invest all the money they earn from shipping into improving their other services?”

“We are not supplied with paper. What paper we do have has been brought in by workers themselves from home.” / 14ymedio

“We are not supplied with paper. What paper we do have has been brought in by workers themselves from home,” an employee complains. “Customers who want to send a letter or a package have to bring it in, ready to mail, because we don’t even have glue,” she explains. It seems as though the service is completely focused on receiving and processing items received from overseas but has forgotten about anyone who wants to mail something within the country or abroad.

“Not long ago I published a book and wanted to send a copy to my nephew in Spain but I haven’t been able to find a medium-sized envelope,” complains a local writer who once even had a post office box located at the entrance to his office. Those boxes, which once welcomed customers, have been abandoned. Some of their doors have been ripped off or their locks broken, a warning that a place that was once dominated by letters and telegrams is now only a delivery area for food, soap, and pharmaceuticals.

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Two Men Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Drugs in Santiago de Cuba

In another exemplary trial, in Las Tunas, a young man was sentenced to one year in prison for possession.

Both were being monitored by the National Anti-Drug Directorate “because of their continued illegal actions”/ 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, May 26, 2025 — The immediate result of the current “national exercise” against drugs -the third in six months in the country and the fifth in Havana- is, as in previous ones, the publicity for the exemplary trials that are being carried out. Both Periódico 26 and Sierra Maestra give an account of two of them.

The first, for which no date is given, was carried out in the Criminal Section of the Municipal Court of Las Tunas and sentenced a youth, 22, to one year’s imprisonment for possession of drugs: in this case, the synthetic cannabinoid popularly known as químico [chemical]. The sentence imposed on him was, according to the provincial newspaper, “the upper limit of the penalty framework for this type of crime.”

The second, held in Santiago de Cuba, was more serious. Two men aged 25 and 30 were sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for “offenses related to illicit drugs or substances with similar effects” in case number 28 of 2025.

Both were arrested by the police on the Central Highway at the Santiago municipality of Contramaestre

Both were arrested by the police on the Central Highway at the Santiago municipality of Contramaestre, reports Sierra Maestra, when they were traveling in a Transtur bus to Havana. They were found, the newspaper continues, “with 501 grams of cannabis sativa oil, commonly known as continue reading

marijuana, a digital scale with remains of the aforementioned plant and cash.”

According to the official newspaper Sierra Maestra, both were being monitored by the National Anti-Drug Directorate “because of their continued illegal actions. Despite their knowledge of the existing prohibitions in our country on the sale of drugs and their harmful consequences for health, they did not hesitate to commit the crime.”

A few days after the start of what they call the third National Exercise on Drug Prevention and Control, on May 18, the government reinforced this new campaign with a half-hour lecture by spokesman Humberto López on a program of Hacemos Cuba.

In it, the authorities revealed that, far from decreasing, narcotics trafficking and consumption continue to increase. The químico, they said, comes into Cuba in disposable diapers, energy-saving light bulbs and false suitcase bottoms, especially from Mexico. It is brought in by Cuban emigrants who live in that country and come to the Island for a visit.

Preliminary data on Havana are particularly worrying. There are 342 people charged with drug trafficking and consumption, most of whom are in pre-trial detention. There are 810 files opened by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Republic in connection with these crimes, committed in 74 “complex environments” in the capital.

In the same space, they denied an article that appeared in Escambray, according to which a new químico, more powerful than the one used by Cubans, would be circulating on the Island. Despite the fact that the report of the official newspaper of Sancti Spíritus included photographs of the product and testimonies from consumers, Colonel Héctor González Hernández, second head of the anti-drug section of the Ministry of the Interior, denied it. Broadly, he summarized, the químico remains “a synthetic cannabinoid made in clandestine laboratories abroad, mainly in the United States.” However, he admitted that among the 400 “formulations” detected, some could be “stronger.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Two Cuban Political Prisoners Awarded in Argentina for Their Defense of Human Rights

In addition to Lizandra Góngora and Alexander Fábregas, Venezuelan Carlos Julio Rojas and Nicaraguan Nancy Elizabeth Henríquez were also awarded.

The Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America recognized the activism of Cubans Lizandra Góngora and Alexander Fábregas / Collage

14ymedio, Havana, May 21, 2025 — The Cuban activist Alexander Fábregas, who was imprisoned in La Pendiente de Santa Clara, does not yet know that he received the 2025 Graciela Fernández Meijide Award for the Defense of Human Rights. The award, an initiative of the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL), also recognized the ’11J’ political prisoner, Lizandra Góngora.

“He is not aware yet; today I visited him, and when I left I learned that he had won the prize,” Fábregas’ mother, Luisa María Milanés, tells 14ymedio. The woman describes her 34-year-old son as someone who is currently extremely thin, “full of bedbug bites but strong in spirit and eager to keep fighting.”

The jury, composed of Rubén Chababo, Norma Morandini, Vicente Palermo, Inés Pousadela and Eduardo Ulibarri, evaluated the numerous applications received from Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. This time the winners, in addition to Fábregas and Góngora, were the Nicaraguan activist Nancy Elizabeth Henríquez and the Venezuelan journalist Carlos Julio Rojas. All four have been through very complicated situations, including prison, “for the sole reason of peacefully defending” democratic ideals and principles. continue reading

Alexander Fábregas was recently convicted of uploading videos to social networks in which he “questioned the Cuban State system and attacked the country’s president”

Alexander Fábregas was recently convicted of uploading videos to social networks in which he “questioned the Cuban State system and attacked the country’s president.” Judgment 20/2025 of the Chamber for Crimes against State Security of the People’s Provincial Court of Villa Clara stated that the activist committed an offense of “propaganda against the constitutional order” by these acts.

The ruling noted that the defendant made several broadcasts on Facebook in which he advocated going out to protest, said civil disobedience “is a right, not a crime,” and asked for support for “political prisoners.” For all this, the court considered it proven that the condemned person made these publications “with the intention of encouraging people to undermine social stability and the socialist state proclaimed by the Constitution of the Republic.”

This is not the first time that Fábregas has been in prison for his activism. His first arrest, for only three days – the maximum period without trial – for publishing a photo on social networks where he appeared with a sign that said: “No More Misery” took place in December 2020. Subsequently, he was arrested on the night of 11 July 2021 in his home, for transmitting on his social networks a call to go out into the streets of Sancti Spíritus to accompany the anti-government protests — subsequently referred to as ’11J’ — that shook the Island that day.

Lizandra Góngora was also among those condemned for participating in those demonstrations. In her case, the sentence amounted to 14 years in prison

Lizandra Góngora was also among those sentenced for participating in the demonstrations. In her case, the sentence amounted to 14 years’ imprisonment, and she is currently in a prison on Isla de la Juventud, far from where her five children live. Her detention in that prison has been considered a “cruel and ruthless tactic of the Castro regime in retaliation for her political opposition,” according to her brother, Ariel Góngora.

“I am very sad because I have not seen my children for four months since they moved me to this prison on Isla de Juventud, 160 kilometers from my home,” Góngora reported at the end of 2023. The activist was charged with the crimes of sabotage, robbery and public disorder during ’11J’ and received the highest sentence among all women sentenced for the same offenses.

The names of Góngora and Fábregas have been included on numerous lists of Cuban political prisoners, and several international organizations have demanded their immediate release.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Hackers at the Service of the Spanish Government Placed Spy Software in Cuban Institutions

This is the Careto group, which infiltrated the networks of several countries.

Image of Careto distributed by Kaspersky, the cybersecurity company that detected it / Kaspersky

14ymedio, Madrid, 26 May 2025 — Almost anyone with an internet connection in Cuba was exposed to spying by Careto [Mask], a group of hackers from the Spanish government that operated in about 30 countries between 2007 and 2014, according to research. Although the existence of the malware was known 11 years ago, as revealed in a report from the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, it was not until this May that at least three experts have directly pointed to Spanish authorities as responsible for the network.

“There was no doubt about it, at least none that was reasonable,” one of them told the American magazine TechCrunch. Kaspersky’s experts detected a spyware that attacked, between those dates, at least 1,000 Internet providers from 31 countries, among which the Government of Cuba was a priority.

The experts argued at that time that the interest was very possibly linked to the presence of up to 15 members of the ETA terrorist group in the country, a conclusion reached by seeing the profile of people attacked by the virus, linked to the Government of Cuba and a particular institution, which was never revealed.

The interest was very possibly linked to the presence of up to 15 members of the ETA terrorist group on the Island

The investigation began precisely with a member of the Cuban government who was infected and referred to as “patient zero,” which led to the discovery that Careto hackers attacked the network and specific government systems in Cuba, according to another former Kaspersky employee. This demonstrated “the attackers’ interest,” he said.

“Internally we knew who did it,” said one of the sources, adding that they had “high certainty” that it was the Spanish government. The other two continue reading

respondents endorse the same thesis and claim that one of the rules was to be careful when it came to revealing the links of some western governments in operations of this type. “It didn’t spread because I think they didn’t want to reveal the identity of a government like that,” a fourth former employee of the company added. “At Kaspersky we had a strict no-attribution policy. Sometimes it was strained, but never broken.”

The software, of a phishing type, was considered “one of the most advanced threats of the moment.” It was very stealthy and had the ability to steal conversations and “highly sensitive” data once it infected the computer, which arrived with emails supposedly coming from well-known media such as El País, El Mundo or Público, as well as recipes and political videos.

When a user clicked on one of the infected links, a code capable of piracy was installed on the computer

One of the former employees who has now spoken with TechCrunch said that among those links, some referred to ETA news or were about issues in the Basque Country, although the 2014 report did not include it. When a user clicked on one of the infected links, a code capable of piracy was installed on the computer while it redirected itself to a legitimate website so as not to arouse suspicion, according to the report.

This code contained several words in Spanish, among them the aforementioned Careto – colloquially used as a bad face – but also another that served to establish exactly the location of the network. This was the contraction ’Caguen1aMar’, which replaces ’Me Cago en el Mar’ [I shit in the sea], exclusive to Spain and not used in other Spanish-speaking countries.

Cuba was not the only target country. Indeed, other spies further confirmed the connection with Spain, including Gibraltar – a British colony located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula – Brazil, Morocco and some targets within the country itself.

Kaspersky, now asked, disconnects from the identification. “We don’t do any formal attribution,” a spokesman told TechCrunch. Meanwhile, the Cuban government has not answered questions from the media; nor has the Spanish Ministry of Defense. The investigated period affects the governments of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Mariano Rajoy, although Careto returned to operating after 2014, presumably now disconnected from state authorities.

Careto stopped all operations when the report became known, even deleting their records, something “unusual,” according to experts

In Africa, the group’s malware was found in Algeria, Morocco and Libya; in Europe, it attacked in France, Spain and the UK. In Latin America, in addition to those already mentioned, Colombia and Venezuela were not spared either. Those affected were diverse and dispersed in all countries except for Gibraltar, Morocco, Switzerland and Cuba, where the target was a specific government institution.

In addition to attacking state institutions, embassies and diplomatic legations, Kaspersky pointed out intrusions by Careto, since 2007, into energy companies, institutions and activists; present on computers with Windows, Mac and Linux, as well as in code capable of attacking Android devices and iPhones. The malware could intercept internet traffic, Skype conversations, encryption keys (PGP) and VPN settings, take screenshots and get all the information from Nokia devices.

Careto stopped all operations when the report was known, even deleting their records, something “unusual” according to experts. The group went straight into the cyber spy elite. “You can’t do that if you’re not prepared,” one of the sources told TechCrunch. ” They destroyed everything, all the infrastructure, systematically and quickly. Boom! It simply disappeared.”

But it didn’t go away completely. Kaspersky found Careto again in 2019, 2022 and 2024, in an organization that had already been spied on in 2014 in Latin America, and another, this time new, in a central African country. Neither of them has been identified in this case. The tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP) are, they claim, extremely similar to those used a decade ago. However, more recent research suggests that it is no longer linked to the Government of Spain and warns that recent mistakes are small but fatal. “What entity was it? Who developed the malware? From a technical perspective, it is impossible to know,” two experts said.

This time the hackers broke into the email server of a Latin American victim, whose name has not been revealed, and then installed the malware, stealing all kinds of data. In the case of the African, another type of screen-capturing code was used. Despite being detected and making more mistakes than in their previous phase, analysts consider them very good, ahead of Lazarus Group (North Korea) and APT41 (China), or at the level of Equation Group and Lamberts (USA) or Animal Farm (France).

Careto is, for them, a “small threat, but one that surpasses in complexity those big ones. Their attacks are a masterpiece.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Hypertensives, Forced To Resort to the Black Market Due to Lack of Medicines

Relatives abroad, who pay for medicines and supplies that have disappeared on the island, are another source of relief.

The lack of blood pressure monitors and other resources in hospitals also affects health services / Granma

14ymedio, Havana, May 25, 2025 — Lidia is one of more than 2.5 million Cubans who are diagnosed with hypertension. Last week I heard a shop clerk in Havana say that the yogurt for which she had been lining up for several days was already gone, and she thought she was going to be one less number in the population statistics. After arriving at the polyclinic in her area with blood pressure through the roof, the response of the doctor on duty left her perplexed: “We have nothing here to help you.”

Days after the scare, and after promising her family that she would avoid “tantrums,”Lidia tells 14ymedio that the doctor herself was shocked when she confirmed, thanks to a photo taken by the patient on her blood pressure monitor, that her pressure had risen to almost 200 mmHg (millimeters of mercury). “She asked me how I got to the polyclinic and had me drink a glass of lemonade without sugar. Then she told me to ’keep doing it, because there are no medicines here’.”

In the absence of medicines, the doctor wrote down for Lidia the name of a drug recommended to control high blood pressure. “I found it on the black market, and the saleswoman told me that it was Colombian and that she did not know if it was any good. In the end I took it, and my blood pressure dropped so low that I almost fainted,” she recalls. continue reading

If Lidia had to resort to the black market it is not because she needed the Colombian pill at any cost

If Lidia had to resort to the black market it is not because she needed the Colombian pill at any cost. A simple Cuban-made enalapril or captopril would have been sufficient, but both pills have become extinct in the state pharmacies, and her first-aid kit has been depleted at the same rate.

At the risk of running into fake or adulterated medicines, she, like many other patients, has no choice but to turn to the black market, WhatsApp sales groups or Revolico’s Facebook pages to find what they are looking for.

A blood pressure monitor is 30 US dollars, an enalapril strip is 250 pesos or a captopril strip is 280; the prices that hypertensive patients find through informal channels are not easy to pay, especially when doses must be taken regularly. In fact, those with family abroad often ask their relatives to deliver the equipment and, periodically, the pills, to avoid being given faulty blood pressure gauges and medicines of dubious origin.

This request is not exclusive to patients. “We sent my sister, who is a doctor with almost 60 years in the profession, both the blood pressure monitor and the blood oxygen monitor from Miami, because they don’t even have them in the hospitals,” says Orlando, who has been in the US for several years.

Every time that Orlando can travel to Cuba or learns that someone he knows is planning a trip, he puts together a small package of medicines

Every time that Orlando can travel to Cuba or learns that someone he knows is planning a trip, he puts together a small package of medicines that, in addition to the always-needed ibuprofen, paracetamol and antacids, includes blood pressure medications. According to him, they are more expensive, but they guarantee that his relatives “are not taking weird things.”

The rates of hypertension in Cuba have skyrocketed in recent years, influenced by the unhealthy lifestyle on the Island, the limited possibility of having a healthy diet and the constant emotional stress of daily life with the long lines, blackouts and inefficient bureaucracy.

In 2010, according to a Cubadebate report from a health worker last March, 22.4% of the population were diagnosed with hypertension. Last year, with 2,494,098 patients, the figure had risen to 29.5 per cent. Of these, 21% were not “dispensarized”; that is, they did not receive regular medication.

On a smaller scale the numbers may be more alarming. In the municipality of Yaguajay, Sancti Spíritus alone, cases increased by 1,455 in the last year. In total, 13,474 residents of this territory suffer from hypertension, 35.8% of the population.

The health authorities explained to the official newspaper Escambray that among the factors influencing the disease some are not modifiable, but others are: “Those that cannot be modified include age, sex and inheritance, while those that can be modified include inadequate diet, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, smoking and alcoholism.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Summer is Approaching and Discontent Among Cubans is Growing

Many families feel they have nothing left to lose because they have hit rock bottom.

Protests in Caibarién, Villa Clara, in 2022, over blackouts. / Screenshot

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 26 May 2025 — Summer has always been the most feared season of the year for Cuban authorities. In addition to the high temperatures that on the island begin in spring, there are the unpopular power outages and school holidays that strain domestic life. This year, the situation is especially complicated due to the fragility of the national energy system and the fuel shortage, which has extended blackouts to more than 15 hours a day in many parts of the country. July and August are approaching, and social anger is growing.

In recent days, street protests have been reported in Bayamo, Granma, and Santiago de Cuba. In images shared on social media, dozens of people can be heard shouting a direct demand: “We want electricity, we want food.” Engulfed in darkness, some banging pots and pans and others using only their throats, the protesters are merely the vanguard of a popular uprising that some feel is just around the corner. That perception that people are going to take to the streets appears every summer, but this one is different. Many families feel they no longer have anything to lose because they have hit rock bottom.

“They’re not asking for freedom,” criticized many internet users, mostly Cubans living abroad, upon seeing footage of the protests. While the demands for an end to the blackout and for some food to reach the rationed market seem very basic from the outside, inside the country they take on a profound political character. In a nation where all thermoelectric plants, oil imports, and the electricity service that reaches every home are in the hands of a state that monopolizes the energy sector, demanding the restoration of power seems extremely daring. continue reading

This same state structure manages the supply of food to the ration stores, handles the international market purchases of products distributed in the basic family basket, and is at the forefront of most economic decisions that result in more or less foreign currency to purchase everything from rice to eggs. Any vocal public demand for improving services and the amount of food that reaches homes is taken by the regime as a challenge. A government that doesn’t tolerate the slightest criticism sees such requests as a gesture of rebellion that it cannot allow.

As temperatures rise and the darkness of power outages spreads across Cuba, the police force is preparing to confront the summer protests. The memory of the social explosion of 11 July 2021, is still very fresh in the minds of the regime, and state institutions have already warned their employees that they must take to the streets to “defend the Revolution.” This is the same repressive strategy deployed around this time every year, and it is marked this time by greater nervousness among the political police in the face of a possible popular uprising.

On one side are the military, the police, and a well-oiled propaganda machine that portrays the dissidents as enemies; on the other are the desperate and hungry people, whipped up by that “General Summer” riding on the back of heat and despair.

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.

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A Tank of Crude Oil Stored for Ten Years in an Abandoned Plant in Matanzas, Cuba Is Leaking

The José Martí power plant was taken out of service, like many others in the national electricity system, due to obsolescence and lack of maintenance.

The authorities said that the two tanks, their access pipes and the spill containment trays were in total disuse / Girón

14ymedio, Havana, 23 May 2025 — The authorities of Matanzas have not explained why they never “gave a destination” to the 500 cubic meters of fuel stored for ten years in two tanks of the old José Martí thermoelectric plant, which this Thursday suffered a leak. The latest official press report, published early this Friday, explains that it has not yet been possible to suction the mixture of fuel oil and crude stored there since 2015, which now threatens to spill into the bay.

Located in the industrial zone of Matanzas, the José Martí power plant was shut down, as were many others in the national electricity system due to obsolescence and lack of maintenance. It is not explained why that amount of fuel was kept there; according to the newspaper Girón, it was used to start up the plant.

The authorities said that the two tanks, their access pipes and the spill containment trays were in total disuse. According to Román Pérez Castañeda, director of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric company, which has jurisdiction over the ruins of the Martí, “certain actions” had been taken to extract the oil, but they were not successful.

The contents of the tanks ended up pouring into the tray this Thursday, and the official press published shocking images. The substance, of remarkable viscosity, occupies all the surface around the tanks. “Something may have gone wrong with the tank body itself or with the access pipes,” said Castañeda, who has so far given no satisfactory explanation for both the disaster or the fact that this continue reading

amount of fuel was stored and available.

Several actions are now being undertaken to “minimize the risks of a disaster,” an unsettling phrase given that the Supertank Base that burned down in 2022 is not far from there, and two years later a tank of the Guiteras itself burned. An attempt is being made to prevent a similar fire in the Martí, and rock material has ben brought with a view to making a trench and pressurized steam has been fired to decrease the viscosity of the crude oil and facilitate its extraction.

That the fuel will eventually spill into the bay is one of the scenarios envisaged, judging by the report from the authorities. They have therefore taken unspecified measures to “reduce the damage to the Matanzas frog population,” a task for the fire brigade.

As a sort of nostalgic note the authorities have recalled that the Martí was once a jewel of the national electrical system. It was the “most reliable block” before its exit from the grid in 2015, and “one of the most efficient,” as well as operating with domestic crude.

On Friday morning, Girón merely said that the extraction “progresses.” Other official reporters have commented on the news to emphasize that it is “oil for non-commercial use” and that, as the journalist José Miguel Solís said, the leak was only a “scare.”

Shaken by the recent energy disasters in Matanzas, many readers have asked questions: “How many years has it been out of use? Why do these tanks store that dangerous residue? What if there was no lightning rod? Was it a short-circuit? Or negligence? What was the cost of the dangerous disaster of not so long ago? Aren’t the tanks checked and serviced regularly? And don’t firefighters inspect those hazardous areas or other areas that are their concern? And, my friends, one wonders how long this will go on.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Havana, Deaths Are Almost Triple Births

The Cuban capital is the most affected by emigration, in addition to registering an infant mortality rate of 10.2 per thousand, the highest in the country.

Cuba’s average age continues to rise, and in 2024 it increased by two-tenths compared to the previous year. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, 23 May 2025 — That the mortality rate in Cuba is higher than the number of births is nothing new. The population growth been negative for years and there is no possibility of reversing it, given that the average age continues to rise. In 2024, it increased by two-tenths of a percentage point compared to the previous year nationwide, but the situation in the capital is particularly dire.

Havana recorded 27,864 deaths last year, approaching three times as many as births, which were 10,783. In total, the province ended December with 1,749,970 inhabitants, a total of 64,237 fewer than in 2023. Of this figure, 47,156 were due to emigration, according to data published this Friday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).

As if that wasn’t bad enough, infant mortality also hit the capital hard, with 10.2 per thousand births, Havana leads the country with the saddest rate and drags the Island-wide figure down to the 7.1 announced at the beginning of this year, despite Sancti Spíritus achieving a commendable and surprising 3.6.

All provinces have high negative migration balances, both abroad and in total.

The figures, which appear in the report on demographic indicators for Cuba and its territories, confirm that the island closed 2024 with 9,748,007 inhabitants. However, a recent independent study reduced that figure to eight million, a total of 307,961 fewer than the previous year. Of these, 128,098 were deceased, while 251,221 were lost to emigration.

This is a well-known but worrying indicator, as all provinces show high negative migration rates, both abroad and overall. Havana, for example, once again stands out for its outward migration rate, with a rate of -36.1 per thousand (only Isla de la Juventud exceeds it, with -36.5). This figure is tempered by the share of migration that is to other provinces, leaving the continue reading

capital with a total migration rate of -26.5 per thousand leaving the Island.

The opposite is true for the eastern provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo, which have rates of only -16, -17, and -18 per thousand for emigrants leaving to go abroad, but their internal migration rates raise the figure to -22.4, -22.6, and -26.6, respectively. Overall, Isla de la Juventud, Camagüey, and Cienfuegos are the provinces with the largest emigrant populations, while Pinar del Río has the highest rate of citizen retention, despite having a migration rate of -20 per 1,000.

The figures for the increases in the mean and median ages are also rising. In 2023, it was 42.2 compared to 42.5 in 2024, while the median (the most common) has risen from 44.1 to 44.5. Although the difference seems minimal, it shows a constant increase, clearly due to the low birth rate and high emigration of people of working age. There is absolutely no province where the average age is less than 40 years, with Artemisa and Guantánamo being the youngest (both at 40.1) and Cienfuegos and Villa Clara the oldest, at 44.9 and 44.5 years, respectively.

In the eastern part of the island, fewer young people have the opportunity to emigrate due to the higher poverty rates.

Regarding the crude birth rate, Guantánamo again displays a double-edged sword: it has the highest number of births—9 per thousand—followed closely by Santiago de Cuba, with 8.9. This also reveals that fewer young people have the opportunity to emigrate, a result of the higher poverty rates in the eastern part of the island.

For its part, Havana is the province with the fewest births per thousand inhabitants, with 6 births per thousand. Sancti Spíritus and Cienfuegos follow, with 6.1 and 6.2, respectively.

Regarding overall mortality, the capital stands out again, reaching a rate of 15.6 per 1,000, presumably due to its aging population and despite having more and better healthcare facilities. Villa Clara, with 14.8, is close, while Guantánamo has only 9 deaths per thousand, a consequence of having a younger population.

Authorities have repeatedly lamented Cuba’s low birth rate, although they compare it with other developed societies and cite women’s emancipation as the underlying cause. However, in those other countries, in-migration cushions the population decline and aging. On the island, however, in-migration is almost nonexistent.

In the midst of a demographic disaster that worsens year after year, the government has yet to implement any measures capable of stemming the flow, and experts wonder how long the remaining social system in Cuba will be sustainable without new blood to feed it.

See also:

Cuba lost more than 300,000 Inhabitants

Cuba: Humanitarian crisis and ‘implosion’

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Neighbors of the Saratoga Hotel in Limbo Three Years after an Accident that killed 47 People

“We remain unsheltered, homeless, and seeing no real progress in the reconstruction of our building.”

El hueco que ocupaba Prado 609, entre el hotel Saratoga y el edificio Yoruba, en La Habana, este martes. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, May 6, 2025 — A massive police presence could be observed around the former Saratoga Hotel and an adjacent building on Tuesday, three years after an explosion destroyed both structures and left forty-seven people dead. The resources employed by authorities to monitor the site on the anniversary of the accident were inversely proportional to the attention given to the demands of the evacuated residents, who took advantage of the opportunity to publicly express their grievances.

“As a resident of 609 Prado Street, I am posting this message to denounce the complete neglect of the victims by authorities,” writes Bárbara del Carmen Tenreyro Pérez on her Facebook page, summing up the situation of the building’s former residents. “We have been unsheltered and homeless for the last three years, and have seen no real progress in the reconstruction of our building.” In fact, residents say, work has been at a standstill for the last six months.

What remained of the building after the explosion was demolished in May 2023. A few months later, the government assured residents they would be able to return to their homes in 2025, claiming they would be rebuilt in the same location. “What they promised were just empty words. The official date for the building’s completion.

Nor has there ever been a full explanation of what happened. Authorities initially attributed the incident to possible leaks in the hose of a tanker truck that was supplying liquefied natural gas to the hotel at the time of the explosion. An investigation was promised but no findings were ever released. “What is most painful is the silence,” said Tenreyro. “No one tells us anything, no one helps us, no one responds to our concerns.” Her post included several photos showing the scene before and after the incident.

Using the same images to illustrate her own comments on the situation, Katherine T. Gavilán writes, “Another May 6th [has come around] and they are still homeless. Some have decided to leave the country while most are still living in Villa Panamericana. The relatives of those killed in the incident and everyone else are still awaiting the results of an investigation but there continue reading

is no news.”

Gavilán notes that, two years ago, families who had been living in the building’s twenty-seven apartments were informed that “they would be able to return to their homes by August 2025.” She adds that residents delivered letters to the local government, the National Assembly and the hotel’s owner, the Business Administration Group (GAESA), last year.

GAESA, the owner of the hotel, told residents that it “had nothing to do with matter”

GAESA, a business conglomerate run by the Cuban military, has owned the hotel since 2016, when it was seized from Habaguanex, a business subsidiary of Havana’s once all-powerful Office of the Historian, headed by the late Eusebio Leal. According to Gavilán, GAESA told residents that it “had nothing to do with the matter.” They received no response from the other two government entities other than to say that “the person in charge of the issue was the Havana government’s head of construction.”

Gavilán adds, “A little less than a month ago, one of the residents, acting on behalf of the entire building, requested a meeting with Namán Morales, the official in charge. Morales’s aide said she would discuss the matter with him and would call back in a few days. The following week, the aide said that she had not been able to speak with him. Gavilán got the same response fifteen days days after her initial contact.”

If the authorities had taken any steps, we would have heard about it. It has been well over a year since they have given us any information,” she complains, adding that none of the various government agencies responded to letters that one resident delivered to them in person.

“Initially, they provided a bus for us here but took it away because there was no fuel

They tried to deliver another letter to the Communist Party Central Committee on Monday but were unable to do so due to lack of transportation from the area where they are being housed. “Initially, we had a bus. It took us from the Villa every day and brought us back in the evening. But they took it away because they they didn’t have the fuel to keep it running,” she says.

The biggest problem in Villa Panamericana is not transportation, however, but running water. “Here, water here is only available here one or two times a day, for an hour. That’s when we have to fill tanks, jars and plastic jugs to last us the whole day. It’s what we use for the bathroom, for bathing, cooking, cleaning, for everything.”

Living conditions for the former residents vary, along with their complaints. “One neighbor had a swarm of rats. To shut her up, they sent an exterminator but no one fixed the furniture the rats had been eating. Others have had serious problems with leaks. Others with termites, even in the doors and windows.”

Work stopped last November, “after they poured the foundation,” she says. “There was never an explanation as to what caused the accident. They have never given us that information and we’re tired of asking for it.”

Residents were told that “construction would begin on February 24 and would be completed by December 25, that the building would go up quickly. Now look at where we are.” Work has been stalled since November, “after they poured the foundation,” she says.

A photo posted by residents on social media on Tuesday shows a hole in the foundation of 609 Prado Street, with bare concrete and stacks of rebars left here and there. Gavilán estimates it was taken in late December or early January” from the roof of the adjoining building, the Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba. “No one else has been able to take photos [since then] because they covered up that little hole.”

A hole of the slab of 609 Prado Street as seen from the rooftop of the Yoruba Building Facebook

Located a few yards from Havana’s Capitol building, the site would normally be considered very desirable. Before the explosion, several families made money by renting out rooms to tourists but have been unable to do so for the last three years. The move to East Havana has not only deprived them of this economic opportunity, it has also completely cut them off from the retail network they relied upon and from the schools their children attended.

Meanwhile, reconstruction on the iconic Saratoga has also come to a standstill. Almest, a real estate developer affiliated with the the Armed Forces ministry, was tasked by the government to carry out the work in conjunction with an an unnamed French company, widely believed to be based in the city of Bouygues and to have worked on the construction of twenty-two luxury hotels on the island.

On the first anniversary of accident last year, Cuban architect Luis Ángel Gil, who now lives in Spain, shared a proposal on social media for renovating the hotel. He proposed a new name, Kairós Saratoga, after the classical Greek words for “opportune moment.”

His basic idea was that the building would act “like a horizontal opening” so that “users would not feel enclosed by walls and could enjoy the excellent views the site has to offer.” To achieve this, he proposed incorporating “a vertical park” that would serve as “a natural extension of the existing public space,” enveloping the building and “strengthening the connection between architecture and nature.”

This proposal, ignored by authorities like the still unknown plan that officials might have, seems to being lying dormant in a drawer somewhere.

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Protesters in Cuba Call for ‘Food and Electricity’

Imagen de uno de los videos compartidos en redes mostrando la protesta del miércoles en Bayamo, Granma. / Captura

14ymedio, Havana, May 22, 2025 — Facing rising temperatures and a daily 1,500-megawatt energy shortage, Cubans are again taking to the streets in protest. The latest demonstration took place Wednesday night in Bayamo (a town in Granma province) and in Santiago de Cuba.

In videos posted on social media, several people can be heard shouting, “We want electricity; we want food.” Martí Noticias reported the protest took place in Bayamo’s Jabaquito neighborhood. “This could explode again at any moment because we still don’t have electricity,” a local resident told the Miami-based newspaper.

“Police intimidation now in Bayamo. Access to Jabaquito Road is closed. People in the streets. Firefighters also brought in for reasons unknown. Right now protesters from different parts of the city still taking to the street,” read one post on X that also included images.

“People in the streets. Firefighters also brought in for reasons unknown”

Thus far, there have been no reported arrests. This is not the case in Santiago de Cuba where, according to Mayeta Labrada, residents were banging pots and pans in protest. They can be heard chanting”food and electricity” in a darkened video recorded by the US-based journalist from a building in the city’s Micro 9 neighborhood.

On Thursday, state media in Santiago de Cuba reported that a shipment of donated rice and pasta had arrived the night before and would be distributed soon to a limited number of towns in the province. It did not continue reading

indicate whether or not this was being done in response to the protests. The shipment is intended to fulfill the monthly ration quota for March, which is now two months overdue.

“The distribution prioritizes ensuring access to basic foodstuffs at a time of scarcity, benefiting families in municipalities such as Santiago de Cuba, Palma Soriano, Mella, Contramaestre and Guamá, who will receive one kilogram of rice per person,” the local newspaper “Sierra Maestra” reported. Meanwhile, each consumer in Tercer Frente, Songo-La Maya, San Luis, and Segundo Frente will receive one kilogram of pasta.

The article described this as a “humanitarian action” and an effort by the local government to alleviate the economic and food hardships affecting the population.” It also alluded to the age-old enemy, the “economic blockade.”

In Pinar del Río, the “difficult electrical energy situation” means that the “National News” program is broadcast only on the radio

“Despite structural limitations, the provincial government is looking for alternatives to mitigate the impact of the crisis, though challenges such as insufficient local production and reliance on international aid persist,” the article states. “The population hopes that these measures will be complemented with longer-term solutions that strengthen the region’s food autonomy.”

Meanwhile, residents in Pinar del Río’s Hermanos Cruz neighborhood (popularly known as El Calero) took to the streets. “The strange thing is that a July 11th doesn’t happen every day,” said a resident of Sancti Spíritus, alluding to the massive protests that occurred on that day in 2021. Power outages in the area have been relentless. “Maybe depression is getting the better of us. That is also paralyzing,” he adds.

“No electricity all morning” was the message from one resident of Camajuaní, a town in Villa Clara province where the power is off longer than it is on. “I couldn’t sleep all morning but I couldn’t go to work either. I am dying of exhaustion,” she says.

In Pinar del Río, the “complex electrical energy situation” is affecting reception of the region’s television signal to such an extent that, on Wednesday, “National News” could only be heard on local radio. Yesterday, the national television interview program “Mesa Redonda” (Roundtable), whose theme that day turned out to be the electricity shortage, also had to be broadcast on the radio.

Once again, the Cuban Electricity Union is forecasting a 1,570-megawatt power outage for Thursday, almost the same as yesterday’s 1,578 megawatts.

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Something That Has Deeply Affected Cuban Literature Is Fear

Leonardo Padura presented his book this Wednesday at La Mistral, a few meters from the Puerta del Sol in Madrid / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yunior Garcia Aguilera, Madrid, 22 May 2025 — Madrid starts the week in full swing with Cuban literature. On Tuesday, Carlos Celdran presented his book -with two plays- at the Arenales bookstore. A day later, Roberto Carcassés presented his first novel at El Argonauta, while Leonardo Padura attended the presentation of Un camino de medio siglo: Alejo Carpentier y la narrativa de lo real maravilloso, at La Mistral. Despite the coincidence, the audience filled all the seats.

Padura shared a table with Luis Rafael Hernández, director of the publishing house Verbum, and the Spanish critic and professor Fernando Rodríguez Lafuente, former director of the Cervantes Institute. The conversation was a kind of meeting between the living and the dead, a contest between the marvelous and the harshly real, but also a confession of the fears that have accompanied generations of Cuban writers.

Winner of the Princess of Asturias Prize for Literature (2015), Padura does not hide Carpentier’s influence on his work, even though his colleagues joked that every writer should “erase the traces of his referents”. Carpentier himself used to say that “writers should not talk about their masters, so that the seams do not show.

The label of the Latin American boom has also been applied to Borges and Carpentier, without much nuance. The result: theoretical confusion and the lumping together of different literatures. continue reading

In 1978, Padura wrote a review of La consagración de la primavera, which El Caimán Barbudo subtitled “Más realismo que maravilla” (More realism than wonder). “It was already a novel in which the ’marvelous real’ didn’t work in the same way; you had to look at things from a different point of view,” he explained. But critics continued to work with the same aesthetics, the same categories. The label of the Latin American boom was also applied to Borges and Carpentier, without much nuance. The result: theoretical confusion and the lumping together of different literatures.

Padura drew a clear line: magical realism accepts the fantastic as an indistinguishable part of reality; marvelous realism, on the other hand, presents the magical from a logical, almost rational approach.

The research underlying this essay began in the midst of the Special Period, when access to information in Cuba was a titanic task. To write The Man Who Loved Dogs, he had to rely on friends with free Internet access who downloaded PDF files from abroad. “We’re talking about 2006 or 2007. Imagine what it was like before,” he said.

“In the 1990s, I wrote like a madman in order not to go crazy,” he confessed without laughing. And he recalled that when he gave the essay to Carpentier’s widow, “there were things she didn’t like because she was very jealous, very widowed.”

Thanks to this research, he was able to better understand Carpentier’s concept of history, his vision of space and, above all, his interpretation of the concept of revolution, which Padura considers “very saccharine” and with which he admits to disagreeing. He also told an anecdote that illustrates the biographical ambiguity of the author of The Century of Enlightenment: for fear of being deported during the Machado regime, Carpentier claimed to have been born at 14 Maloja Street in Havana, when in fact he was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. “All in all,” added Padura, “he is the most Cuban Swiss-born writer one can imagine.”

“The writers of the 1970s who survived wrote in fear. And later generations have not been completely free of it.”

In addition to Carpentier, the author revealed three other great references: Vargas Llosa, Cabrera Infante – “who taught me to write in the Havana language” – and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán – “who showed that it was possible to write police literature that was, above all, literature”. “I’ve been wanting to write a note for about two years, and I couldn’t do it while Vargas Llosa was alive, because it might seem like I was buttering him up” he joked.

The writer recalled that his years as a student at the university were marked by a power that demanded “a Marxist understanding of history”. In addition, the culture of the island suffered the ostracized death of two “phenomena” of world literature: Virgilio Piñera and Lezama Lima.

“It was very difficult” – Padura admitted – “something that has deeply affected Cuban literature is fear. People wrote with fear. The writers of the 1970s who survived wrote with fear. And later generations have not been completely free of it.”

Translated by Gustavo Loredo

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In the ‘Llega y Pon’ of Matanzas, Cuba, There Are Also Social Differences

Inspectors no longer spread terror with their fines and evictions in illegal settlements.

While some houses resemble more of a crumbling shack, others have solid block walls / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, May 11, 2025 — Walls made of rusted sheets of metal and roofs that would not withstand a hurricane comprise most of the houses in the illegal settlement that has been growing at the entrance to the city of Matanzas, near the industrial area. Its residents, mostly from the eastern part of the country, cling to the land, despite the lack of basic infrastructure in this area near the Balcon del Yumurí, in the Dubrocq neighborhood, popular council of Versalles.

The “llega y pon” [literally,’arrive and put’] began to be erected more than a decade ago in silence, avoiding the eyes of the inspectors of the dreaded Institute of Physical Planning that, until 2021, sowed terror with its fines and evictions among residents of illegal settlements. “I arrived at this place when there were only two settlements constructed by easterners, near the old School of Trades,”says Juan Carlos, who fled from the poverty of his home province, Guantánamo.

With his own hands, Juan Carlos started cleaning up a piece of land in an area that was covered with garbage. He cleared, removed pieces of metal, leveled the ground and became a bricklayer in the process. The son and grandson of fishermen, who had grown up among fish nets and poor catches, he quickly established himself as a builder raising his own house. It was small and fragile, but it was his.

“The materials to build always have to be bought under the table. There are so many people here who do not have the resources and have had to settle for building a room made of wood and cardboard,” says Juan Carlos.”But the main thing is that they have somewhere to live. They will improve it continue reading

over time,” he adds. With a housing deficit that, in 2024, was estimated throughout the island at more than 850,000 dwellings, having a roof over your head is almost a privilege in Cuba.

Many residents in the”llega y pon” don’t settle for improvising a home and living badly inside / 14ymedio

Juan Carlos, like many other residents in the “llega y pon”, does not settle for improvising a home and living badly inside. While some houses look more like a shack about to collapse, others show solid brick walls, small terraces and wooden or metal shutters for the breeze. Social differences also arise in the neighborhood. Those who have arrived from other places in the province of Matanzas have more contacts to improve their homes. Those from the east of the country and the elderly live in the most precarious homes.

Yorelbis is one of those from Matanzas who came to the area pushed by the overcrowding in his parents’ house in Pueblo Nuevo. A State worker, he had been waiting for years for a subsidy to purchase construction materials that had been promised at his work center. The money never arrived. The State resources to build a house began to run out, and the young man, married with a pregnant wife, decided not to wait any longer.

Like Juan Carlos, Yorelbis picked out a piece of land. He built the foundation of the house and erected the outer walls with bricks recovered from collapsed buildings or bought on the black market. Finally, he divided the interior with cardboard and wood to have two rooms and a tiny dining room that also serves as a kitchen. Seen from the outside, there is no plaster on the facade, and some of the rebar sticks out just where the asbestos-cement tiles that cover the dwelling begin.

“When you arrive for the first time you feel like you are at the end of the world. There is no asphalt, and the dust gets inside you through your ears. On the other hand, the power never goes out, because we are fed by the electric line that goes to the industrial area,” says Yorelbis. It gives us an illegal power supply, and no family in the settlement pays a cent.” Although we are far from the city, here it seems we have what we need,” says the young man showing a few liters of vegetable oil he has for sale.

Entrepreneurship is also gaining ground in the neighborhood. There are several private cafes, and shops that offer cheap clothing appear here and there. There is no ration store, but there are plenty of merchants who advertise bags of bread rolls or the popular ice-cream sandwich that children make a fuss over and that empties parents’ pockets. The inspectors barely approach, perhaps because of fear or because they intuit that the residents of the area inhabit a feral universe where the law and fines accomplish little.

The smile of pride for his home on Yorelbis’s face dissolves when he lists the disadvantages of living in an illegal settlement

The smile of pride for his home on Yorelbis’s face dissolves when he lists the disadvantages of living in an illegal settlement. One of the main obstacles is the lack of an identity card with the address where he actually lives. ” We still have the papers at my parents’ house and that complicates our lives a lot,” he admits. ” Getting my pregnant wife looked after in the nearest clinic was a headache, and when the child grows up, we will see how we can enroll him in school.”

The neighborhood has been growing and is full of children. While much of Cuba suffers from an aging population, the Dubrocq “llega y pon” has many families with young children. The women carrying babies, the strollers as they go along the rough and unpaved road and the cries of newborns coming from some houses give the area a childlike cheerfulness.

But this striking presence of children also highlights one of the problems that most affects the area: teenage pregnancy. In the province, the fertility rate for the 15-19 age group is 51.5 per 1,000 women. In the poorest neighborhoods, the figures are even more alarming, with consequent problems of maternal malnutrition, low birth weight, school dropout and family material insecurity.

In the group of those arriving from the east of the country, many also bring their young children. “I came here from Bayamo with my two small children, because my brother left the country and gave me this room,” Yanelis tells this newspaper. Yanelis lives in a modest house made of metal sheets that were once destined to become cans. ” At least I don’t get wet when it rains,” she says.

In the group of those arriving from the east of the country, many also bring their young children / 14ymedio

Yanelis, however, does not hide her concern that she has not managed to change the address of her identity card. ” I have been able to keep my children studying with the help of the school principal, but I do not know how long that will be possible.” Although the regulations are strict to enroll a student in a school, some directors turn a blind eye or facilitate the admission of undocumented students into classrooms, aware of the serious housing problem in the country.

Like most of her neighbors, Yanelis has a long list of dissatisfactions ranging from water supply problems in the area to the insecurity that spreads between its crowded alleys as soon as night falls and the lack of recreational places for children and teenagers. However, also like many of the residents in the Matanzas settlement, she feels that this piece of dry land and precarious houses is finally her home.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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“There Will Be More Cuban Repressors Sanctioned,” Says the Head of the US Embassy in Havana

Regarding the regime’s criticism of his tours around the island, Hammer said at a press conference in Miami: “There’s nothing in the Vienna Convention that doesn’t allow that.”

Mike Hammer, head of mission of the US Embassy in Havana, at this Friday’s press conference in Miami, Florida /Facebook/Martí Noticias

14ymedio, Madrid May 23, 2025 — Mike Hammer, head of the US mission in Cuba, will continue to work as he has done in the months that he has been in office, touring the Island and approaching people. He insisted on it at a press conference held this Friday in Miami, Florida, which was broadcast live on social media.

With the affable style that characterizes him, addressing the half-dozen media in the room, he began the event by thanking “the press that does its job, in a democracy where there is freedom.” Before submitting to questions, he reiterated the line followed by the current government of Donald Trump in its policy towards the Island, headed by Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and based on two pillars: “a return to a hard policy towards the Cuban regime” and “support for the Cuban people.”

Regarding the former, he gave as an example the sanctions announced last Wednesday on three judges and a prosecutor who intervened in the arbitrary trial of Luis Robles Elizástigui, “the young man with the banner,” stating that “there will be more. It’s a beginning, not an end,” he reiterated at question time. “This administration is determined to punish the repressors. There will be consequences for their actions, and I can’t reveal more measures that are coming but they will come, I can assure you.” continue reading

“What we don’t want to see is repressors walking around the streets of South Beach sipping their mojitos”

Regarding the errors that may be made in identifying repressors to punish them, or unjustly denying visas or residence to certain people, he acknowledged that there may be some but that they will continue with the tightening of the law. “What we don’t want to see is repressors walking around the streets of South Beach sipping their mojitos. That can’t be, it’s not fair for Cubans who want to come legally to the United States,” he said. “The Cuban people also tell me that it hurts to see repressors enjoying the good life here in the United States. How can it be, if we are the ’great enemy’, that every Cuban wants to come to the United States?”

The second pillar of US foreign policy towards Cuba has to do, he clearly stated, with his journey through the country. He has been, he said, in all the provinces, “from the west, in Pinar del Río, to the other end, the east, in Guantánamo.” And what he has heard from the majority, “almost all people, even some of the State machinery, is that the Revolution has failed.”

The diplomat continued: “There is no electricity, you see the blackouts, there is a shortage of fuel, there is a shortage of food, there is a shortage of medicines, and people recognize that the Cuban regime is responsible, which has nothing to do with any policy of the United States.”

“Those in the Regime who want to accuse us of one thing or another should listen to their own people”

“Those in the Regime who want to accuse us of one thing or another should listen to their own people,” he said, referring to the criticism he received from the Cuban government, which has described his conduct as “disrespectful”, “contrary to the rules of international law”, “unwise” and “interventionist”.

Hammer recalled his career of more than 36 years, in which, among other destinations, he was in Chile and the Congo. “As I said to the Cuban regime, I did the same thing in those countries, go out and meet people, talk to them. There is nothing in the Vienna Convention that prohibits this.”

In fact, he indicated, about Cuban diplomats on US territory, “they do it. They travel all over the United States meeting with whomever they want. Well, I’m doing the same thing; there’s nothing wrong with it.” Regarding the obligation, recently imposed by the US on these Cuban diplomats to give advance notice of their movements, he clarified that he seeks “reciprocity. It is not that they cannot go, it is that they have to notify.”

“Obviously there’s a lot of movement, you see the Ladas everywhere”

He also wondered, at various times: “What are they afraid of, if I am a simple head of mission?” He further reported that there have been threats to people not to meet with him, but that despite this, he continues to encourage them: “Keep on meeting with us, we appreciate the support.”

Asked if he does not fear that there may be an “out-of-control incident” on his tours or that they may “limit his movements,” he replied that he is not concerned about the constant surveillance he assumes is there. “Obviously there is a lot of movement, you see the Ladas everywhere. If we turn right, they turn right. I don’t like to go left – he joked – but well, if we do go left, they come with us. They are filming me constantly.”

That, he says, doesn’t matter to him: “We are saying what we are doing, it’s totally transparent.” What he is concerned about is that they have seen calls on social networks by the authorities for “trolls” and “militants” to “come and disturb” or “interrupt” their trips. It’s something, he said, “you have to keep an eye on.”

“Any state has a responsibility to protect any foreign diplomat, and I am sure that the Cuban government will comply with this.”

“In cases where the regime does not want to accept them from the United States, it has to look for other options”

About the case of two Cubans with criminal records deported to South Sudan José Manuel Rodríguez Quiñones and Enrique Arias Hierr- about which the US administration has not been entirely clear, Hammer said he was aware and very familiar with the reality of South Sudan, as he was a special envoy for the Horn of Africa. “Every month there are deportation flights to Havana. We present a list, the regime reviews it, and so far they have accepted it. In cases where the regime does not want to accept them from the United States, it has to look for other options, but it is the responsibility under international law that they receive Cuban citizens.”

The journalist who inquired about the subject asked again if what he was saying is that the Government of Havana refused to receive these two compatriots, and the head of mission avoided giving details: “I prefer the answer to be given by the State Department.”

“Is Cuba a failed state?” asked another journalist, to which he replied that it is not for him to give an answer, although an opinion was allowed: “If you have hotels where there is air conditioning for foreigners and not for your people, you are not responding to the needs of your people.”

In his speech, the diplomat also called for the release of all political prisoners and defended visiting their families: “You have to give them a little support, and they appreciate it.” And he added, “It’s unusual that someone can’t go out and express themselves in peaceful protests. In all countries of the world, more or less, that can be done. That José Daniel Ferrer and Félix Navarro, who had been released, should be imprisoned again, why? Because José Daniel is feeding his community? That has nothing to do with meeting me. They know what we talk about, they have heard everything.” He also alluded to Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo Osorbo: “Why are they afraid of some artists?”

Finally, he spoke of the entrepreneurs he has visited, especially “micro-entrepreneurs” and, above all, women, about whom he argued that they are “people who want to earn a living because there is no other way” and have “a spirit we all share here. It is worth supporting them, especially because the State does not do so.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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