Adriel Ferrera was electrocuted while performing agricultural work
Cuba records an annual average of 54 deaths from lightning strikes. / Facebook / Raúl Navarro
14ymedio, Matanzas, 30 August 2025 — Adriel Ferrera La O, 28 years old, died this Friday as a result of lightning in the town of Río Piedras, in Colón, Matanzas. The young man was electrocuted while performing agricultural work, the People’s Power Municipal Assembly reported on its Facebook page.
The neighbors tried to resuscitate him, but unfortunately Ferrera died before he could be taken to the hospital. He was the father of a two-year-old girl, according to several family members and friends in reports about his death.
Earlier this month, three children lost their lives in Manicaragua, Villa Clara, due to lightning during a storm. They were accompanied by 14-year-old Diamelis Delgado Granados, the only survivor of the group. She was hospitalized and fared well, according to the authorities.
The fatalities in that incident were: Andy Alberto Turiño González (13), Analía García Rodríguez (14) and Jorge Alejandro de la Coba Monteagudo (14), who had come from the United States to spend his holidays in Cuba. continue reading
Cuba records an annual average of 54 deaths from lightning strikes.
A few days later, on 10 August, a 42-year-old woman died after being struck by lightning. The incident also occurred in the municipality of Colón, Matanzas, when the victim was engaged in agricultural work, as was Adriel Ferrera La O.
Just two months ago, two other teenagers died under similar circumstances in Bauta, Artemisa. On June7, in the neighborhood of Pita (popular council Urban 2), Luis Antonio and Maicol -who were playing soccer outdoors- were struck by lightning.
In 2023, a lightning strike also killed Dunielkis Fonseca Borges, a worker at the Nickel Union Services Company in Moa, Holguín. In that incident, six other colleagues, who, like her, were waiting for transport to return home, were injured.
To date, Cuba has recorded an annual average of 54 deaths from lightning strikes, making it the leading cause of death from weather events. Between 1987 and 2017, 1,742 deaths were recorded, according to a study carried out by specialists from the Institute of Meteorology (Insmet).
According to recent estimates supported by NASA and other specialized sources, it is estimated that up to 24,000 people worldwide are killed annually by lightning strikes, and approximately 240,000 are injured. However, there is a lack of systematic official reports on the incidence of this type of phenomena in certain regions.
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.
“Cuba sent an annual aid of 10,000 tons of sugar, doctors and some advisers,” recalls a former ambassador of the regime in Hanoi
Díaz-Canel comes to Vietnam to beg for investments from state and private enterprises of a communist ally that practices a market economy
The general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, To Lam, with Miguel Díaz-Canel in Hanoi. / VNA
14ymedio, Madrid, September 1, 2025 — In the midst of Miguel Díaz-Canel’s official visit to Vietnam, a country that has been gaining ground in Cuba — even literally by turning one of its companies into a tenant of land on the island — Cubadebate publishes an interview with former ambassador Fredesmán Turró, which, unwittingly, is very revealing of how the two communist nations have followed diverging paths and come to opposite results.
From being a very poor country receiving economic aid from Cuba, Vietnam has opened itself to the market economy and has become a developing society that helps an impoverished Cuba that still clings to centralized planning.
“Cuba sent an annual aid of 10,000 tons of sugar, doctors and some advisors, and in the middle of the war two poultry genetic centers and a cattle genetic center were built,” says Turró, who arrived in Vietnam in 1968 -at just 18 years old- along with nine other students. The group was part of a commitment made by Raul Castro, then commander, during a visit to the country two years ago in which he met with Ho Chi Minh.
“It was really a very, very emotional visit. In his speech, Raul said that Cuba would even be willing to send volunteers to fight alongside the Vietnamese,” he said. The Asian leader, who died in 1969, never got to know Fidel Castro -who did not visit Hanoi until 1973- although, according to Turró, “There are countless anecdotes that show the affection, the respect they had. “The Cuban sent, he says, ice cream from Coppelia to the Vietnamese leader and “species of bull frogs for Uncle Ho to raise in the pond near the humble hut where he lived, in the service area of the Presidential Palace.” continue reading
“It was really a very, very emotional visit. In his speech, Raul said that Cuba would even be willing to send volunteers to fight alongside the Vietnamese”
The former ambassador relates, with feeling, Castro’s first visit to Vietnam, which occurred in the middle of the war; he was “the first foreign politician to visit liberated areas of the south, very close to the enemy.” The Vietnamese “remember it with much gratitude and admiration for the audacity of the Commander, because that was really dangerous, but also for the decision of the Cuban leader to build and donate a hospital to the area.” Cuban doctors are currently working there, although the regime has not specified recently how many of them make up the contingent.
In the middle of the interview, the conversation revolves around Vietnam’s transformation from a poor country with no basic services to the emerging economy it is today. According to Turró, who admits that he does not know anything about economics and is limited to telling what he experienced, he says that the first mistake of the country was to try an industrialization similar to that of the countries in the socialist camp in Europe, when it lacked the necessary bases for this. Therefore, they decided to take another course.
They adopted a market economy with state control, not letting it “go wild,” while deciding to maintain social policies (…). In poor areas they built infrastructure, put in electricity and implemented new policies.
First visit of Fidel Castro to Vietnam, in September 1973. / Prensa Latina
The former official also touches on a sore point, which has long been claimed by self-employed producers and small entrepreneurs in Cuba. “One of the initial measures of that renewal process was to liberate the productive forces and develop them,” he says, although he also claims the importance of the Communist Party in the process and says that “Ho Chi Minh’s thinking remains the guide.”
The development of Vietnam, based on these changes in its economy, has led it, he emphasizes, to be “in recent years (…) fundamental for winning and overcoming the difficulties we have in Cuba. As we know, it is the second largest investor in the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM) and the second largest trading partner in Asia.” He added: “Vietnam has helped and still helps us in several projects that are key, such as the planting of rice and corn. Its ZEDM companies produce basic necessities.” In addition, the country has now raised $14.8 million in donations for the island.
Turró, asked what measures Cuba could take to penetrate the Vietnamese market, recognizes that we must “have more initiatives, be more creative” and stresses that the Cuban side must understand that in Vietnam there is free competition, and it can cost a lot to do business. “If a Cuban company is going, for example, to sell coffee -which is not the case-, it must know that it will have to compete with several brands of Vietnamese coffee, including foreign coffee brands,” he says, while recalling that competition is in fact encouraged and fostered.
“The purchase of medicines in Vietnam is by tender. You have to go through a bidding process, and -this is no secret to anyone- those contracts are sometimes won by the big pharmaceutical multinationals, which dominate global trade,” he admits.
Political will, however, partially opens the way for Cuba. That is why among the activities of Díaz-Canel in Hanoi has been the inauguration of the high-tech plant for the production of medicines of Genfarma, the joint venture resulting from an agreement between BCF S.A. -an entity of the state group BioCubaFarma- and the Vietnamese Genfarma Holdings.
“We intend to produce blood products there in the short term. It will be another extraordinary fact that will give technological sovereignty to Vietnam, not just in the case of vaccines and biotechnological products, with very high added value,” said Mayda Mauri Pérez, president of BioCubaFarma. “It will have a decisively high impact on the health of the Cuban population, because everything we do with Vietnam will have a return to our basic list of medicines. With the participation of the Vietnamese we will have financial resources that will allow us to produce on a large scale and meet both the demand of their population as well as ours,” she added.
In Hanoi, Díaz-Canel stressed that “this is the fastest joint venture we have achieved,” as it had already been agreed during President To Lam’s visit to Cuba in September 2024.
In Hanói, Díaz-Canel stressed that “this is the fastest joint venture we have achieved,” as it had already been agreed during President To Lam’s visit to Cuba in September 2024, which demonstrates the efficiency of the Asians, who are also achieving some important advances in the cultivation of rice on the island.
The Cuban side has undertaken to give preferential treatment to its Vietnamese partners, who had expressed their annoyance at the inefficiency of their counterparts on the island. In 2024, the company Agri VMA -with several businesses on the island, including its presence in ZEDM- sent a letter to three ministers of the Cuban government requesting access to 300,000 dollars frozen in their account at the International Financial Bank. The company claimed that it needed these funds to import raw materials and maintain its production, which had been reduced to 10 per cent due to a shortage of inputs, and it reminded Cuba of Vietnam’s role as a supplier of animal feed.
Shortly before Díaz-Canel’s arrival in Hanoi, the Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Deborah Rivas Saavedra, was in charge of smoothing the way and assured that Cuba “is open and ready” to adopt measures to facilitate Vietnamese investment projects.
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.
In the absence of uniforms, many young people wear casual clothing and even a garment until recently banned in schools, the ‘jeans of the Empire’.
“Faced with the lack of teachers, indiscipline and rumors of drugs around a school in Holguín, one mother preferred that her son return to his municipality.”/ 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 1 September 2025 –The beginning of the school year in Cuba, this Monday, was far from the epic repeated by the state media, between promises of “celebration” and “commitment.” While official acts and triumphalist speeches were multiplying on television, in Sancti Spíritus a grandmother had to sell the Metformin she takes to control her diabetes to buy notebooks for her grandson. The mother of the child, who lives abroad, was not yet able to send the package with the school supplies, and the old woman chose to exchange her health for the materials.
It is just one of the stories that 14ymedio has collected about the beginning of classes. In Holguín, the driver of a private taxi recounts the experience of a passenger whom he transported this morning who moved from Buenaventura. “He did not even allow his son to go to the first shift of classes in the Alberto Sosa secondary school. It was enough for him to see the scene,” says the driver. “Faced with the lack of teachers and the indiscipline, without anyone being able to control it, the disorganization and the rumors of drugs in the vicinity, he preferred to return the boy to his village rather than leave him at that school.”
The problem of drug use also haunts the José Miró Argenter secondary school, in the periphery of Holguín. “Some parents have paid between 10,000 and 15,000 pesos to get their children transferred to schools that are more central and supposedly safer,” the taxi driver added.
The official speech wants to erase the image of the previous course, marked by the rebellion of students against the ‘tarifazo’ [huge rate increase] of the state telecommunications company Etecsa. / 14ymedioThe government had declared this beginning of the school year as a “top priority,” in the words of Miguel Díaz-Canel, although the president was not present because he is on a tour of Asia. Education Minister Naima Trujillo filled the gap with figures: more than 1.5 million students returned to school on the first of September. He had to bury the image of the previous school year, marked by the rebellion of the university students against the ‘tarifazo‘ — huge rate increase — imposed by the state telecommunications company Etecsa.
Behind the official choreography, the country shows a bleak picture. Dozens of schools have been closed because of their deterioration, and classrooms continue reading
are overcrowded due to lack of teachers. The discourse is rife with euphemisms such as “assurances” and “optimization of resources.” But on the street, the most repeated phrase is another: “lack of everything.”
The lack of uniforms was evident from this first day. Photos taken by 14ymedio reporters show students dressed in casual clothes, including the jeans of the Empire, until recently banned from schools. Even the official cartoons made humorous allusions to the problem. In state stores, many families did not find the sizes they needed, and on the black market a single garment is sold for a price that very few can afford. Some parents resorted to bartering, exchanging shirts and blouses. Once again, the help of relatives abroad was the lifeline.
A state employee of Sancti Spíritus sums up the paradox: “It is cheaper to buy school supplies in Spain and send them, than to get them in Cuba.” And with shoes the drama is even greater. One mother paid the equivalent of more than two months’ salary, about 13,000 pesos, for basic shoes.
Some schoolyards were decorated with Venezuelan flags that had little to do with the occasion. / 14ymedio
The shortage is compounded by lack of sleep. Parents and teachers agree that the blackouts affect rest and learning. In Camagüey a power blackout since two o’clock in the morning is reported just before the opening of schools. A mother described on Facebook the irony of hearing the school talk about a “better future” after staying up all night. “My daughter already knows how things are,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
In the school yards, decorated in some cases with Venezuelan flags that had little to do with the occasion — as in the primary and secondary school José Luis Arruñada of Nuevo Vedado, in Havana — parents looked at the few materials delivered with distrust. They describe two pencils, badly copied notebooks and old books that many recognized as the same ones they used in their childhood.
The shortage of teachers, however, is the biggest obstacle. In Camagüey, 19 schools did not open their doors; in Holguín they speak of “zonification,” a technical term which in practice means crowded classrooms and longer journeys. The few teachers who resist must accept part-time contracts, split shifts and face overcrowded classrooms. Two decades ago the government boasted an “ideal” of 20 students per classroom and up to two teachers in some grades. That reform evaporated, and today’s classrooms inflate like balloons about to explode.
In Camagüey, 19 schools did not open their doors, and in Holguín they speak of “zonification”
The officials speak of “creativity,” but for most families that word implies mending used uniforms, improvising backpacks and finding desks on their own. For teachers, it means recycling notebooks, dictating notes instead of using books and photocopying guidelines with money out of their own pockets.
The opening act this Monday ended with the usual script: a ceremony that tried to disguise as celebration what is actually nostalgia. Parents know that the real test begins the next day, when the pencil is missing, the teacher can’t give attention to everyone and the notebook pages run out before November.
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.
US-Cuba Trade highlights the role of the private sector in the increase in vehicle and machinery purchases
Chicken once again led purchases for another month. / Cubadebate
14ymedio, Havana, 18 July 2025 — Continuing the upward trend experienced since the beginning of the year, imports of U.S. products to Cuba increased again by 7.6% this May compared to the same month in 2024. In total, the island purchased products worth $37.2 million that month. In the last five months, the figure has risen to $204,928,982, 16.6% more than the same period last year.
The data, published by the United States-Cuba Economic and Trade Council (US-Cuba Trade), put into practice what is no secret: the island is becoming increasingly dependent on imports from the enemy “empire” to feed the population, as national agricultural production has collapsed. As a result, food purchases continue to occupy the largest share of the basket.
For another month, chicken once again led the list of purchases, with thighs, rumps, and frozen meat valued at $15,782,351, representing 42.2% of total imports. continue reading
The island also acquired a significant amount of powdered milk, representing 12% of the import value.
The island also purchased a significant amount of powdered milk, representing 12% of the import value, valued at $4,430,000. Another $2,400,553 was used for fluid milk, $1,196,977 for rice, $812,317 for pre-prepared foods, $664,571 for religious hosts, and $479,420 for coffee (roasted, unroasted, and decaffeinated).
US-Cuba Trade also highlighted the import of motorcycles for $1,359,638, but no mention is made of the purchases of used vehicles, which in recent months, following an authorization from Washington, had become popular among business owners and private companies on the island. Humanitarian donations, meanwhile, amounted to $10,783,073, while purchases of medical and healthcare products amounted to a meager $52,281.
US vehicle and machinery sales to Cuba deserve special mention. From 2023 to the end of 2025, the report estimates, exports of all types of vehicles—new, used, electric, gasoline, motorcycles, and trucks—and their parts will exceed $115 million, to which sales of machinery and industrial products must be added, for a total of $140 million. US-Cuba Trade notes that the dynamism of the private sector has largely contributed to the increase in US exports.
In the first half of 2025, purchases abroad in this sector exceeded $1 billion.
The Cuban government recently recognized the participation of individuals in the economy and the importation of all kinds of products to the island. During parliamentary sessions, it stated that, in the first half of 2025, foreign purchases in this sector exceeded $1 billion, a 34% increase compared to the same period in 2024.
At the top of the list are SMEs, responsible for 70% of this amount, followed by self-employed workers (26%) and artisans, agricultural and non-agricultural cooperatives (4%).
Among the main imported products, added the Parliament’s Economic Commission, are raw materials and intermediate products (37%), food (22%), beverages (16%) and “machinery, appliances and their parts” (13%).
The Ministry of the Food Industry , which is facing a clear domestic production crisis and has a limited budget, also admitted that 25% of its production depends on its links with the private sector.
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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.
14ymedio, Matanzas, 30 August 2025 — Adriel Ferrera La O, 28 years old, died this Friday as a result of lightning in the town of Río Piedras, in Colón, Matanzas. The young man was electrocuted while performing agricultural work, the People’s Power Municipal Assembly reported on its Facebook page.
