October 2025 – Page 8 – Translating Cuba

Immortaloids

A dictator can ignore freedom, but never mortality.

Vladimir Putin and Fidel Castro during an official meeting in 2000. / EFE

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, October 5, 2025 –I read in El País Semanal an enthusiastic and disturbing declaration of principles: “Aging is no longer taboo. Women and men with gray hair proliferate on magazine covers and in advertising. The number of anti-aging clinics and spas continues to grow. Longevity (and the pursuit of it) has become a new status symbol. The struggle to extend the limits of life by attempting to reverse biological aging is the latest religion.”

Below is an interview with Maye Musk, Elon Musk’s mother, a platinum-plated, futuristic beauty whose merit—besides giving birth to the technoprole—is being the oldest swimsuit model in the world. I delve into the soap opera of her life. Wife of an abuser, mother of a genius or two, grandmother of 17 grandchildren, at 77 she never stops working.

It symbolizes the death of retirement, an outmoded idea—like vacations or human rights—that today’s workaholism, embodied and also demanded by Elon, is unwilling to tolerate. But what really worries lazy people like me—or Socrates, or Sherlock Holmes—is this “last religion” that El País dignifies. The dogma of old age as a “status symbol,” the realm of old adolescents, as Cicero would say.

Maye is inoffensive, or she wants to appear to be. There are worse things. Trump is 79, Putin and Xi are 72, Netanyahu is 75, Ayatollah Khamenei is 86, Raúl Castro is 94, and Díaz-Canel—a political quinceañera—recently turned 65. I can’t explain how comforting these numbers are. A dictator can ignore freedom, but never mortality. Perhaps that’s why several strongmen kept the remains of the leader they overthrew close by. Mengistu, a close friend of Fidel Castro, is known to have hidden the bones of Haile Selassie continue reading

under his desk in the Grand Palace in Addis Ababa. A talisman, a memento mori with a touch of witchcraft.

Neither Putin nor Xi are jellyfish or tardigrades, they do not want to be robots, they aspire to something more modest and therefore terrifying: to live longer, a little longer, as long as they can.

The interview with Maye Musk appeared a few days after a microphone recorded part of a conversation between Xi and Putin about living to 150 years. The headline was that both dictators were seeking immortality, like kings of the Holy Grail, but this is a technical error. Neither Putin nor Xi are jellyfish or tardigrades; they don’t want to be robots; they aspire to something more modest and therefore terrifying: to live longer, a little longer, as long as they can.

It appears (we don’t know Russian or Chinese, the message comes in distorted by translators), that Xi praises human longevity thanks to science: “Now at 70, you are still a child.” Putin provides the sci-fi plot: “Biotechnology is making impressive advances,” he says, “there will be continuous transplantation of human organs, and perhaps people will become younger as they age, even to the point of achieving immortality.”

Xi bursts out laughing—dangerously interjected by Kim—and answers measuredly: “It may be that in this century humans will live to be 150 years old.” This fairytale conversation took place in a fairytale setting: the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing. Díaz-Canel was also there, so it is possible that a little immortality might be splashed on him.

The international media didn’t give much importance to the anecdote. As with Maye Musk, it is assumed that neither Putin nor Xi will leave office until they die. Phrases about real life expectancy were repeated, conspiracy theories were floated, and the conversation was played down.

One remembers with nostalgia that joke from 2016, just as Fidel was about to die, when we Cubans said: “No evil lasts 100 years, but 90, yes.”

One nostalgically recalls that joke from 2016, just as Fidel was about to die, when we Cubans said: “No evil lasts 100 years, but 90, yes.” How wrong we were. There is a way to achieve immortality—Putin, Xi, and especially Trump know this well—and it isn’t symbolic. The mantra “I am Fidel” summed it up well. The entire country became Fidel; we continue to live Fidel’s destructive project; his historical insanity never died; his administrative clumsiness has more than just heirs; it has its own identity.

That’s immortality, and to achieve it, these crazy old men—how could we not invoke Porno para Ricardo?—want to work until the very end. They also want us to work, of course, but not as swimsuit models or as attendees at diplomatic receptions. Many will have to die so that others can become Fidel, or Trump, or Putin, or Xi.

An article on immortality can become a homily or a harangue. If it is—what else can I do?—I’d rather end with an exhortation: cultivate laziness; defend the waste of time as sacred; meditate on the Gate of Heavenly Peace (but not like Putin and Xi); live happily, don’t be too annoying, and die peacefully. In short, don’t be Fidel.

____________

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.

“Yes, People Are Dying From This Virus” in Cuba

The official newspaper ‘Girón’ gives a shocking description of the situation in the province of Matanzas.

Olea Gallardo, Havana, October 6, 2024 — “This illness has made you lose track of time and even logic. You no longer know how many days you, your husband, or your mother-in-law have had the symptoms, or if this is dengue, oropharyngeal fever, or chikungunya, or when the after-effects will go away, or how many minutes ago you got out of bed, or where it all began, or when the authorities knew, or why it took them so long to act. Or maybe they acted quickly and well and you didn’t find out because you no longer watch the news because of the power outages, or don’t have internet access until the month is up so you can put a recharge on your next bill.” The text is not a complaint posted on Facebook by an anonymous source or a statement given to an independent media outlet, but an article published this Sunday in the Matanzas newspaper, Girón.

The province is under an unprecedented epidemiological alert since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fact that such words appear in a pro-government media outlet demonstrates the desperation of its inhabitants.

The note, signed by Raúl Navarro González, speaks not only of the symptoms (“you’ve lost your appetite, you’ve lost weight, you’ve lost strength in your hands and legs, and the terrible pain makes you not even want to get out of bed”) and the cost of medications on the black market (“the sheets no longer smell clean, but rather of the last fever you sweated out, the rancid stink of the paracetamol blister pack, mixed with the smell of the coil you burned and the $10 repellent spray you sprayed on your son’s body, hoping—for God’s sake!—that no mosquito would infect him”). And, it also speaks of the suspicion that the illness has nothing to do with Aedes aegypti , the transmitter of dengue, chikungunya, and oropouche: “Staying under the mosquito net sweating makes no sense because everyone in the house is already infected, and besides, it’s a luxury you can’t afford.”

“A wail, a curse word, escapes you when you manage to peel yourself off the mattress and put your feet on the floor.”

The description is graphic: “A wail, a curse word, escapes you when you manage to peel yourself off the mattress and place your feet on the floor. Then, when you take the first step, two tears fall. One, from the discomfort in your body. The other, larger one, falls from the pain in your soul, from the helplessness you feel as you walk down that hallway that feels narrow and dark, like this infected island you inhabit and love.” continue reading

The only praise in the text is for the residents, many of whom “have come by to learn how they can help.” One of them reported that “they were finally collecting the garbage in some neighborhoods and that they were also fumigating,” says the author, who concludes: “This disease we suffer from leaves an iron taste in our mouths that is too bitter.”

The testimony published in Girón is very similar to the one offered to 14ymedio by Annia Zamora, mother of political prisoner Sissi Abascal and a resident of the small town of Carlos Rojas, Matanzas. “The truth is, I can’t describe what we’ve been through here at home,” she said by telephone. “We couldn’t even get up to give each other a glass of water in the other bed. This has been very painful, very sad. It has affected us physically and psychologically. I myself can’t even walk because of the pain and swelling in my legs.”

The woman, who, like many other Cubans, has been suffering for two weeks from an illness they can’t name because they don’t know what it is, is certain of one thing: “The regime is lying shamelessly.” Her story paints an unmitigated picture of the health situation: “People are dying because of this virus.”

“It’s not the same. There are people who are having a much worse time. It’s something strange we’ve never seen before.”

As for the symptoms, she confirms: muscle pain that prevents even walking – “my hands and feet become stiff”; fever that reaches 40 degrees, vomiting, diarrhea… “It’s not the same; there are people who are having a much worse time, it’s something strange that we’ve never seen before.”

Zamora asserts that, far from being resolved, the situation continues to worsen. Hospitals and polyclinics are overwhelmed, and there are no medicines. “Right now, I have a relative admitted to the pediatric hospital in the city of Matanzas. They had him in the hallway on a stretcher because the hospital is completely overwhelmed,” she complains. “The only medication a patient can take is something they look for it on the black market or someone gives it to them, because there’s nothing in the pharmacies. Not even the hospitals have Duralgina to give to a child when they arrive with a fever of 39C [102F].”

For the activist, this is an “incredible” situation, but even more incredible is “the ease with which the regime lies”: “There’s no garbage collection, there’s no fumigation, it’s all a lie.”

Her words contradict the authorities’ announcement this Saturday, which claimed to have increased the “anti-vector fight,” meaning fumigation against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and that “all municipalities are more organized.” In a note published in Granma, the provincial director of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology of Matanzas, Andrés Lamas Acevedo, explains that dengue fever is being transmitted in 12 municipalities in the province—all except Ciénaga de Zapata—and that chikungunya transmission is also “certified.”

“It spreads from person to person, through the air, through the environment. Something happens and it’s on a different level.”
Likewise, he stated that the priority is “active surveillance and combating dengue,” which, unlike chikungunya, can be fatal, although he did not report any deaths in the country. The clinical picture of chikungunya, he said, “is very serious,” but “people do not become seriously ill or die from it.”

However, he did warn that chikungunya can be “concomitant” with dengue in the same person, so he encourages people to go to the health service “so that the doctor can evaluate the appropriate course of action,” because, he cautioned, “we cannot self-medicate.”

He made no mention of the testimonies that have been multiplying in recent days, many of them reported by 14ymedio, which allude to the impossibility of an accurate diagnosis due to the lack of reagents. From Matanzas itself, Miguel Alejandro Guerra Domínguez, a doctor and victim of the shortage at the Cárdenas Territorial Hospital, denounced on social media that he had not received the tests required for the progression and monitoring of his illness. “A hospital that does not guarantee the basics for the diagnosis and monitoring of dengue is seriously failing its population,” he said on his Facebook page.

The more than 700 comments left by Girón’s readers on social media reaffirm the seriousness of the situation and abound in widespread suspicion. One commenter is even surprised that a pro-government newspaper would publish such a comment: “The Girón newspaper has the odor of 14ymedio,” Yobanis Herrera says sarcastically.

“It started 21 days ago with pain in my hands and neck, then it spread and I developed a high fever, itching, and loss of appetite.”

Maritza Catalina Rodríguez, for her part, ventures: “In my humble opinion, I don’t think it’s a mosquito. I’m more inclined to believe it’s a disease like rubella, mumps, measles, contagious diseases that spread very quickly.” Many other commentators agree, such as Jeny Dacal: “I totally agree. It spreads from person to person, through the air, the environment. Something happens and it’s on another level. It’s something that attacks the entire nervous system and makes you feel like you’re almost dying. I had it, and I’m 34 years old, and I thought I was dying. I had difficulty speaking, I felt like my soul was leaving me. It’s extremely unpleasant. This isn’t because of the mosquito, I’m sure of that.”

The responses are not only from Matanzas residents, but also from residents of Cienfuegos, Ciego de Ávila, Villa Clara, Guantánamo, Havana, and other provinces. Several users suggest it could be scarlet fever, which according to journalist José Luis Tan Estrada is being reported in Camagüey.

Without knowing for sure what is attacking them, the sufferers can only describe the similar symptoms: “It started 21 days ago with pain in my hands and neck, then it spread, leading to a high fever, itching, and loss of appetite. Currently, I wake up early with a stiff neck, no grip. The leg pain is worsened by the circulatory problems. I don’t know for how long; I can’t continue taking paracetamol. Could it be chronic?” wonders Adelfa García, from Matanzas.

Some others allude to the severity with which the COVID-19 pandemic hit that same province more than four years ago. The situation reached its peak between June and July 2021, precisely in the days leading up to the 11 July Island-wide demonstrations, in which Matanzas residents participated massively and which were especially intense in the municipality of Cárdenas.

Hildolidia Martell summed up the state of affairs in her commentary: “On my block, we’ve all suffered and are still suffering from the virus. But what did you expect, given the unhealthiness and shortages we’re enduring? Well, if you can even call it surviving? Yesterday, as I was returning from the clinic, a man said to me, ‘Ma’am, we’re dead and we haven’t even realized it.’ No, we’re still breathing, I replied. He looked at me very seriously and replied, ‘We’re dead people who are breathing.’”

____________

“This Isn’t Havana, but Send the Military To Pick Up the Trash,” Residents in Holguín, Cuba

From several provinces, they demand that a mobilization like that in the capital be called.

A mountain of garbage in Holguín. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, October 6, 2025 — This weekend’s garbage collection “offensive” in Havana is having an unwelcome effect on the authorities. Residents in several provinces are clamoring for a similar mobilization to clear their streets of the mountains of waste. In the city of Holguín, more than a troop of military recruits and Young Communist League members, people are demanding a long-term strategy to end the problem of the accumulation of garbage.

Next to the bakery in the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood, very close to the Alberto Sosa González high school and pre-university, the garbage has been piling up for weeks, under the worried gaze of residents and the feast of the mangy turkey vultures. Also just a few meters from a daycare center, the trash blocks almost all the traffic on the street, and its stench forces one to quicken one’s pace when walking nearby. “Díaz-Canel, send in the Special Troops battalion!” said a grumpy bread vendor trying to squeeze through the narrow space between the filth and the sidewalk on his bicycle, loaded with merchandise.

“Here they asphyxiated most of the private individuals who had horse-drawn carts and were providing garbage collection services.”

The images of the volunteer work carried out this Saturday in the Cuban capital by Foreign Ministry personnel, young soldiers, members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the CDRs, and even high-ranking officials dressed in their impeccable uniforms have been like salt in the wound for the people of Holguín, who complain of the constant neglect of their province and the lack of resources to keep the communal services running. “Here, they suffocated most of the private individuals who had horse-drawn carts and provided garbage collection services. They raised the costs of all supplies, and people left,” a resident of Pueblo Nuevo told this newspaper.

For the woman, the current situation requires more than a “momentary outburst” and demands that although “this isn’t Havana, they should send the military to collect the trash.” In the few minutes that the neighbor approaches the dumpster to check its extent, the mountain of waste grows a little larger because a nearby MSME [small private business] dumps several empty boxes that once contained frozen chicken, a young man throws away debris from a demolition project, and another passerby throws some freshly pruned branches from a garden. The already heightened spectacle greets teenagers leaving the nearby school after the bell rings to end the morning session.

____________

Lacking Fuel, Cuba Can Use Moringa Waste and Solar Panels to Bake Bread

In collaboration with Spain, experts from Cuba Energía seek to replace diesel by moringa biomass in the bakeries

Bakeries currently consume a high amount of diesel daily. / Tribuna de La Havana

14ymedio, Madrid, October 6, 2025 — The bakeries in Havana are preparing to work with moringa biomass and solar panels. The method has been successfully tested at Panadería Dulcería Línea y 12, located in El Vedado, and its workers claim that the specialists have certified the hot dog bun used in the experiment as a quality product.

Canal Caribe reported on the project this Sunday, saying it will save huge amounts of diesel and gas for the food industry. “Daily, this oven that we are going to see now consumes daily about 80 kilos [over 175 pounds] of diesel at the minimum. So, multiply that by 385 days, and that’s going to be the result we’re going to get,” said C. Alfredo Curbelo Alonso, a researcher at Cuba Energía.

These quantities, in each bakery of the country, amount to a strong economic outlay, dependent, moreover, on the availability of the resource. Instead, this project involves the start-up of ovens from another type of fuel: moringa pellets. The invasive plant is one of the few things that abound in Cuba, and this idea sparked a collaboration with Spain, through companies and the University of Zaragoza with the International Development Cooperation Agency.

These amounts, in each bakery of the country, amount to a strong economic outlay, dependent, moreover, on the availability of the resource

The research for the project began in 2022, as announced by the Spanish Biomass Association, through the Energy Resources and Consumption Research Center, which tested the suitability of moringa biomass, the continue reading

system and process of converting its woody remains into pellets and its potential, among other things. This allowed the first factory of this type in Cuba to open in October 2024.

In a note published on the occasion of the opening of the center, the Spanish association stated that the woody remains of moringa “with its rapid growth and multiple applications” would be transformed. Instead of being discarded, it would be used as a source of heat. The company Ecofricalia contributed the biomass-specific moringa pellet plant, and the company Biocurve provided the biomass boilers.

“Thanks to the use of biomass, the drying process is done with a lower energy cost compared to the electrical system that was being used,” said the press release. This would guarantee, a priori, the supply to the bakeries resulting from the agreement with the Ministry of Food Industry and Cuba Energía. “Cuban experts and researchers emphasize the validity of this proposal in view of the energy crisis facing the country. In addition, they value its importance in exceptional situations such as those caused by meteorological phenomena,” states the report.

The report explains how the use of wood pellets, which have a high burning power and are very easy to handle, has become widespread. Researcher Curbelo Alonso points out that what is going to begin in bakeries could be extended to other larger industries, although in this case it will be necessary for the pellets to be made of wood chips, “a little easier to produce and more difficult to handle, but worth it.”

The goal is to transform the energy matrix using an abundant resource. Last week, in an interview with Bloomberg Line, the expert at the University of Texas Jorge Piñón recommended precisely the use of biomass in Cuba as a substitute for the expensive domestic crude, of poor quality, although he proposed the cane as the raw material base.

The report also mentions the possibility of installing photovoltaic panels in all the bakeries in the country wherever possible

The report also mentions the possibility of installing photovoltaic energy panels in all the bakeries in the country wherever possible, so that baking could be carried out during the hours of sun. “This is an integral project that is now in the investment plans, which we are preparing for 2026, on the roofs of bakeries that have the right conditions,” adds the engineer. He ensures “continuous production for the population, without interruptions due to lack of diesel.”

The shortage of flour and the poor condition of the mills have caused another crisis on the Island: the bread is of poor quality and shrinking in size. To this is added the lack of electricity, which often puts the production of the product at risk, even provoking a panic in the population that desperately seeks to get hold of it. This leads not only the authorities but the bakers themselves to rationing the sale on several occasions, even in private businesses.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Stealing a Cow and Killing It Is Punishable by Eight Years in Prison in Artemisa

The court held an “exemplary” trial in which it was proved that the defendants had “a purpose to illegitimately increase their personal assets”

Screenshot of the video broadcast of the trial of two people in Artemisa for robbery and slaughter of cattle / Artemisa TV

14ymedio, Madrid, October 6, 2025 — A court in Artemisa has handed down sentences of seven and eight years’ imprisonment for two persons accused of theft and illegal slaughter of livestock. The trial was held on September 26, although it wasn’t broadcast on local television until this weekend.

According to the report, “it was proved that the accused, in order to illegitimately increase their personal assets through the sale of illegally slaughtered cattle meat, appeared in the immediate vicinity of the road to the Carranza estate, municipality of Mariel, province of Artemisa, and took possession of an animal of the Brown Swiss breed belonging to someone else and killed it without being authorized.”

In addition to deprivation of liberty, both will have to pay an unspecified fine for civil liability. The tools used in the commission of the crime, which were not detailed either, were confiscated, and, as normally happens, they will not be allowed to leave the country.

In addition to deprivation of liberty, both will have to pay an unspecified fine for civil liability. The tools used in the commission of the crime were also confiscated.

The report states that “their social behavior, its characteristics and the injuriousness of their actions” were taken into account when imposing the sentence, but the long length of the sentences is not the only element which suggests that there was an exemplary purpose to the trial. The written indication was on the page of Artemisa television in its social media, which used the word “exemplary” as the title of the video.

“Why doesn’t it say that the lawyer asked a question to the head of Sector and never got it answered because he did not have an answer to the relevant questions? Odor tests were not done in the proper manner and have no value under State law codes. It was all a farce set up by the head of sector. The injustice continues in condemning Julio César, 26 years old,” writes a user on social networks. “How can you publish this and not the questions that the police asked? Because those journalists who were in the courtroom didn’t ask them,” he continued, upset. continue reading

Cases of theft and slaughter of cattle are a headache for the Cuban authorities, in a context of beef shortages that have lasted for too many years. In recent times, moreover, with the increase of the economic crisis and the emergence of crimes, there have been countless robberies of this type. The ranchers declare themselves powerless, because they lack, among other things, such basic things for the protection of animals as wire fencing and personnel to guard them.

The harsh sentences surpass one of this year’s most prominent cases, when last April a man who stole two horses in San Antonio del Sur in Guantánamo in April was sentenced to three years in prison.

The harsh sentences surpass one of this year’s most prominent cases, when last April a man who stole two horses in San Antonio del Sur was sentenced to three years in prison

In February, after ten months of inspections and monitoring, the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that there are 2,914,009 cows left in the country, an alarming figure that is a measure of the livestock debacle in a country with six million head in 1958, as many as its inhabitants.

In addition to the crimes of theft and slaughter, there are other illegalities linked to the sector, such as births that are not declared, changing the declared sex of animals to avoid obligations with the State and a multitude of traps that have been consolidated over decades by the demands of authorities that have only led to an absolute crisis of the livestock population.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

If Nothing Happens, Something Will Have to Happen

In the long agony that followed the collapse of the socialist bloc in Eastern Europe, those who continue to rule in Cuba have found it necessary to shed ballast.

Nor has it worked that each person gives to society according to their ability, nor that each person receives according to their work. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar Havana, 30 September 2025 — We all aspire to write that definitive text that will put in its place, like a cockroach under an entomologist’s pin, this pseudo-socialism in its terminal state, subjected to therapeutic abuse.

I warn that this is not that text, although I intended it to be.

I have called what we suffer pseudo-socialism, not to avenge the Republic, on which they also foisted the media-driven label, but because since April 1961, when the hijacker of the Revolution without taking into account the popular will proclaimed the socialist character of the process, the essential principles that identify this system in the books have barely been fulfilled.

Nor has the principle of each person giving to society according to their ability, nor has the principle of each person receiving according to their work, worked. Much less have the ever-increasing needs of the population, an ambition inscribed as the fundamental law of socialism, been met.

Not even during those years of Soviet subsidies, were those five-year plans — (does anyone remember them?) that were announced with great fanfare at the conclusion of the Communist Party Congresses — fully implemented. It was all a mirage, a fraud, a swindle. continue reading

I have said that the system is in a terminal state because, in the long agony that followed the collapse of the socialist bloc in Eastern Europe and finally in the Soviet Union, those who remain in power in Cuba have found it necessary to shed ballast so as not to sink the country even further.

They thought it was reasonable to invite foreign investors, but they finally gave in to the ‘MSMEs’ and are now on the verge of dollarizing the market.

Like a boring striptease , they started by accepting self-employment. They thought it would make sense to invite foreign investors. They finally gave in to the MSMEs* and are now on the verge of dollarizing the market.

Only the most intimate garments are missing.

I have also said that the system is subject to therapeutic abuse precisely because its agony is prolonged in its terminal state.

If those who remain in power in Cuba were truly convinced of the theory, they would have given socialism another chance, at another time. And that would not be a defeat, nor a surrender, but a timely retreat. But all signs indicate that the sole purpose of continuing to milk this dead cow is to remain in power, nothing more and nothing less than to enjoy the obscene privileges that such a position grants.

We Cubans frequently find ourselves subject to the swings of the pendulum of hope. For the moment, it seems there is no one who can fix or end “this,” and unexpectedly, rumors are circulating that a nonagenarian is on the verge of death or that a fracture is looming up above.

It is as if we were waiting for the child to shout that the king is naked, as if it were so difficult to realize that dialectical materialism, the philosophical basis of historical materialism, was unaware of quantum physics and that artificial intelligence has no relation to the class struggle.

If immortality isn’t playing a practical joke on us, if the performance of unbreakable unity isn’t just another fiction, something must give, because this is unbearable.

*MSMEs — Micro, small and medium size businesses, commonly privatize.

____________

Aaron and the Invisible Monster

Sometimes they live in our heads, other times in our fears, our sadness, or our doubts. But courage also exists

Little Aaron taught us that even in the deepest darkness there is a way out/ 14ymedio

14ymedio, Milton Chanes, Berlin, 2 October 2025

Once upon a time, there was a nine-year-old boy named Aaron. He was quick, funny, full of ideas and energy. He loved running through parks, laughing with his friends, and above all, being the goalkeeper for his city’s soccer team. When he put on his gloves, he felt he could stop the whole world with his hands.

One afternoon, after a long day on the field, Aaron raised his arms to celebrate victory. The sun was setting and his teammates embraced him, but then a thin line of blood began to slide down his nose. At first, it seemed like nothing—just a simple nosebleed.

They took him to the emergency doctor. She looked at him, examined his nose, and, almost smiling, said:

—“It’s nothing serious. Just part of his age, the result of exertion.”

But Aaron’s father wasn’t reassured. He had seen that look in his son’s eyes: eyes that spoke louder than a thousand words, eyes that refused to accept the easy explanation.

—“Dad,” Aaron whispered softly, “I think it’s the monster.”

It wasn’t the first time he had mentioned it. Since he was little, he had felt that an invisible monster lived inside his head. No one else could see it, but he could hear it, feel it. A shadow that sometimes pushed his thoughts and made him feel different.

When he was even younger, he had already fought against it. A silent battle that had ended in a partial victory: the monster had been defeated. But Aaron knew that monsters, like shadows in the night, always find a way to return. continue reading

His father insisted. He demanded tests. And after days of waiting, they finally got a CT scan. The screen revealed what Aaron had already announced with the innocence of children who know how to look beyond the obvious: there it was, hidden just a few millimeters from his brain.

The monster

It had no eyes and no teeth, but it was real. A dark mass, crouched in the most delicate place of all.

—“See? I told you,” Aaron whispered, with a mixture of fear and certainty.

The First Battle

Everything happened quickly. Difficult words, white coats, hallways that smelled of alcohol and fear. The doctors scheduled the first operation. The monster had to be faced as soon as possible.

The operating room became the dark cave where the first battle was fought. For hours, the surgeons struggled with their shining tools—cutting, extracting, trying not to harm the treasures hidden all around: memory, dreams, the words Aaron still had to say.

At the end of that first fight, 70% of the monster had been vanquished. A partial victory, like the first time.
—“We’ve weakened it, but it’s not enough,” the doctors explained. “Its roots are in very delicate places. We need a second operation, even more precise.”

His father nodded, but Aaron already knew. The monster wouldn’t leave so easily.

The Transfer

They went to another hospital, where a specialized team knew better the secret map of the brain. There, among machines that seemed to come from another world, they prepared for the second intervention.

Aaron listened in silence while the adults spoke. He wasn’t afraid. He had been a goalkeeper too many times. He knew what it was like to face an impossible shot and still throw himself at it with his whole body.<

Before going in, they asked him if he wanted to say something. Aaron smiled:

—“When I win, I want you to bring me ice cream. Chocolate and dulce de leche.”

The Second Battle

The operating room lit up. Outside, the family waited with suspended hearts. Inside, the surgeons fought like knights against a hidden beast.

There was a moment when the battle almost seemed lost. Aaron’s heart stopped. For endless seconds, he crossed the border where angels dwell.

They say he found there an immense clarity, a place without pain, where everything was calm. And that the little angels, curious, asked him:
—“Do you want to stay?”

Aaron looked at them and, with the mischief of a boy who refuses to lose a match, replied:
—“Not yet. It must be beautiful up here, but down there my ice cream and my games are waiting. You’ve got all eternity to play. I don’t. Not yet.”

The monitor beeped again. His heart resumed its rhythm. The doctors continued, more determined than ever. And in the end, they succeeded. The monster was eradicated.

The Return

Days later, Aaron opened his eyes. His parents cried with relief. The boy looked at them and said, in a weak but steady voice:
—“It’s done. The monster surrendered.”

Since then, he walks lightly, as if he had left behind a very heavy shadow. He feels invincible—not because he doesn’t know pain, but because he faced it and returned from where few ever do.

He keeps laughing, keeps inventing stories, keeps stopping impossible goals. But now there is a different glow in his eyes: the certainty that life is a gift, and that every minute counts as if it were eternal.

The Lesson

The monster was real, but even more real was the strength with which Aaron confronted it. And so, his story became a fable for all who hear it:

Monsters exist. Sometimes they live in our heads, other times in our fears, our sadness, or our doubts. But courage also exists, and laughter, and love—the forces that weaken them.

Little Aaron taught us that even in the deepest darkness there is a way out; that death can brush against us and still choose us to return; and that life, no matter how fragile it seems, becomes eternity when we live it with gratitude.

Moral:
Monsters may come back, but so do victories. And when someone returns from the edge of death, they are no longer the same: they become proof that every instant of life is a gift, and that even the angels know how to wait—because a child’s laughter on earth is more powerful than any eternity.

Translated by the author

A Satellite Photo Reveals That the Asticar ‘Patana’ [Turkish Power Plant] in Havana Will Have Nine Engines

The authorities are secretive about the port facilities, while giving great publicity to the construction of solar parks

Satellite photo taken in March of the chimneys still being installed / Jorge Piñón/Google Earth

14ymedio, Havana, October 5, 2025 — The Asticar power plant, located on the docks of Astilleros del Caribe in Havana, has been under construction since at least the beginning of this year. A satellite photo taken in March, shared with this newspaper by University of Texas expert Jorge Piñón, shows the progressive construction of the chimneys.

Mentioned only a couple of times by the authorities of the National Electric Union (UNE), the power plant — which, unlike other Turkish patanas is not floating and is on land — remains a mystery. Located on a dock of the state shipyard belonging to the Gemar Group of the Ministry of Transport, it is unknown where the engines came from, what generation capacity they have and how much Havana disbursed — unless they were donated- – to acquire them.

However, it is clear that the Asticar plant is still under construction. So far it has only six visible chimneys, numbered 4 to 9 on the top, suggesting that at least three more are missing. Photos taken by 14ymedio show three other scaffoldings similar to those supporting the chimneys just at the side, indicating that towers 1, 2 and 3 are still under construction.

About the origin of the patana, located a short distance from where the Turkish Suheyla Sultan used to be, which left in August, taking with it the 240 megawatts (MW) it produced, Piñón ventured several hypotheses. Looking at the date of construction of the chimneys, the engines may have continue reading

arrived on board Karpowership’s floating power plant Cankuthan Bey in December 2024.

Photo of the visible chimneys of the plant, numbered from 4 to 9, taken on October2 / 14ymedio

As the UNE reported at the time, the Cankuthan Bey arrived in Havana on December 8, 2024, “to begin work on its units and, once completed,” left Cuba in September.

Another theory is that the generation units of the Asticar plant — or at least part of them — arrived on board the heavy cargo ship OK last May, although the satellite image, which shows the half-built chimneys, suggests that the placement of the patana began months before.

As for the origin, everything points to the chimneys being Turkish, although they could also be one of the many donations made by China to Cuba in recent months, or even by a third partner that the regime refuses to reveal. In the first case, points out Piñón, each of the nine engines, similar to those of the floating power plants, would have a capacity of 15 or 20 MW, which would give a total generation of 135 or 180 MW.

The mention of the “Asticar patana” at the beginning of this week in a breakdown report from the Havana Electric Company also suggests that the patana could be running at half capacity while they finish installing the corresponding engines and chimneys.

The entrance of the Turkish yard in the Karen Caribbean Shipyard in Havana / 14ymedio

The secrecy with which the authorities act has also been reflected in the agreements signed with the Turkish company Karpowership (Karadeniz Holding) since the arrival of the first patana, in 2019. The cost to Cuba was never known, although by August 2023 it was estimated that the bill amounted to more than $100 million.

Faced with Havana’s inability to pay this amount, the Turks gradually withdrew their patanas and managed to get compensation. Of the eight in Cuba, only one remains, in Regla. Although this is again a secret agreement, it is known that the Turkish shipping company Karen Caribbean Shipyard was awarded a port concession for part of the docks in the state-owned Caribbean Shipyards (Asticar), where they are installing the new engines to produce power.

The silence surrounding this plant and its installation does not fit with the authorities’ desire to show, at all costs, that “work is being done” in the country to reduce the hours of blackouts. The best example is the delivery of Chinese solar panels and industrial generators, which the official press has announced on each occasion with great hype, assuring that every extra MW that arrives at the National Electric System (SEN) relieves the burden of the overexploited thermoelectric plants of the Island.

However, neither the photovoltaic with its thousands of panels installed nor the Chinese generators have been able to alleviate the enormous deficit that the Island experiences on a daily basis. The lack of power has normalized in the country to such an extent that the 1,570 MW deficit forecast for this Sunday by the UNE seems a relief from the 1,840 registered last Tuesday.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Cuba Faces an Outbreak of Viral Diseases Amid Shortages of Supplies and Reagents

“A hospital that does not guarantee the basics for the diagnosis and follow-up of dengue is seriously failing its population,” writes a doctor from Cárdenas

The authorities again make the population responsible for the cleaning of patios and waste management / ‘Invasor’

14ymedio, Havana, October 5, 2025 — Viral infections caused by the Aedes aegypti mosquito continue to spread in Cuba. In Ciego de Ávila, oropouche is the one that caused the authorities to issue a health alert last Friday. “During the last few weeks there has been a remarkable increase in febrile cases,” the official press reported.

Doctor José Luis López González, Deputy Director of Epidemiology of the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology, reported the circulation of oropouche in all municipalities, except in Primero de Enero.

In view of the increase in cases, the authorities assure that antivectorial actions have been “reinforced,” but they again make the population responsible for cleaning patios and waste management, without giving details on the effectiveness of state fumigation campaigns or the actual availability of resources to deal with the epidemic.

Authorities assure that the anti-vector actions “remain reinforced”

The effect of the rains in recent weeks has favored the spread of the mosquito that transmits not only oropouche but also dengue and chikungunya. Concern has risen throughout the Island, since an epidemiological alert was announced in late September in Cárdenas (Matanzas), with symptoms showing up in all the Popular Councils.

From the same province, Doctor Miguel Alejandro Guerra Domínguez, a physician suffering from the shortage of reagents in the Territorial Hospital of Cárdenas, reported on his social networks that he had not been given the tests required for the evolution and follow-up of this disease. “A hospital that does not guarantee the basics for dengue diagnosis and follow-up is seriously failing its population,” he said on his Facebook page. continue reading

A clinical laboratory technician in Holguín, who requested anonymity, repeated the same thing: no reagents, no PCR kits, no basic supplies. “We do not have disposable items such as gloves, syringes or needles. And it’s the same everywhere, from polyclinics to hospitals. We practically come in just to punch a clock. There’s nothing to work with.”

The lab technician, from Holguín, who also carried out internationalist missions in countries in Africa and Latin America, warns: “Official statistics are not reliable at all. If we had to inflate the data to justify the need to keep Cuban doctors there, imagine what is being done inside the country to support the myth of Cuba as a medical power.”

“If we had to inflate the data to justify the need to keep Cuban doctors there, imagine what is being done inside the country”

Although the official discourse constantly blames US sanctions for shortages, this explanation does not address the structural causes underlying the problem. Lack of transparency in the availability and management of resources, insufficient investment in infrastructure and migration of health personnel are key factors aggravating the crisis.

BioCubaFarma Group, responsible for supplying 62 per cent of the Island’s basic range of medicines, has expanded its exports to 41 countries through joint ventures and cooperation agreements, and this export frenzy is detrimental to the domestic market.

The export of medical services, the Cuban State’s main source of income, also has no impact on improving health in the country. For example, in 2022, revenues from human health and social care services reached $4,882 million, representing 69% of total exported services, according to official figures from the National Bureau of Statistics and Information. However, the budget for hotel construction was four times higher than that spent on agriculture, education and health last year.

“Is dengue not an emergency? Does not a thrombocytopenia or hemoconcentration that is not detected in time put the patient’s life at risk? It is a total lack of respect for patients and medical practice,” lamented Dr Guerra in his public complaint. And he concludes: “A hospital that refuses to do the minimum tests required for a life-threatening disease is simply failing in its duty. And what’s more regrettable is that all the doctors who work here, by accepting and normalizing this situation, become accomplices to this health disaster.”

Translated by Regina Anavy
____________

A Mural Against Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Was Painted on a Wall in Guanabacoa

“It’s very tense here with the blackouts. I’m sure they painted it in the dark because we haven’t slept for two nights due to the power outage,” explains a neighbor.

The slogan was written on colorful drawings curated by the Corral Falso Gallery, located at 259 Corral Falso Street. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Havana, 4 October 2025 — A graffiti with marine motifs became the improvised canvas on which a poster against the Cuban leader appeared this Saturday. In Guanabacoa, Havana, someone painted “Díaz-Canel singao” [motherfucker], one of the phrases most frequently used to express Cuban discontent. The slogan was written on colorful drawings curated by the Corral Falso Gallery, located at 259 Corral Falso Street. Among fish, octopuses, and reefs, the insult to the Cuban president stood out in the eyes of passersby..

“That childish painting hadn’t even been on that wall, which was once ugly and faded,” a neighbor told 14ymedio. “As soon as we noticed, a man and a woman arrived and started making calls to someone to come and cover up the sign.” The two people inspected the area and stayed on the sidewalk waiting for the brigade, which traditionally paints over anti-government signs. Police experts will probably also arrive to try to take fingerprints at the scene.

“It’s very tense here with the blackouts. I’m sure they painted it in the dark because we haven’t slept for two nights due to the power outage,” explains a nearby resident. In Guanabacoa, a municipality with a low-income population, protests against the lack of electricity and water have multiplied in recent years. With pot-banging and street closures, residents have expressed their weariness with a crisis that worsens every day. “They’re going to have to put a guard on every wall,” summarizes a vendor who approached the Corral Falso graffiti, where, between a whale and a shark, three words challenged the regime this Saturday.

____________

In the Midst of a Deep Publication Crisis, Nine Volumes of the ‘Selected Works’ by Raúl Castro Are Presented

The general did not attend the presentation but did attend the ceremony for the anniversary of the Central Committee of the Party

Photo of Raul Castro during a different event, a celebration at the PCC / X/Miguel Díaz-Canel

14ymedio, Havana, October 4, 2025 — With the publication this Friday of his Obras escogidas [Selected Works], Raúl Castro intends to go down in history, imitating his brother not only as a political leader but also as a thinker. In nine volumes, said one of the editors, Cubans can approach “the personality, ability and sensitivity of Raúl.” However, the general did not show up at the presentation of the books, although he did appear at the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, supporting Miguel Díaz-Canel and banishing for the umpteenth time the rumors of his death that were circulating in September.

Castro’s books are, as expected, privileged among the few Cuban publications. According to Cubadebate, the volumes have “a quality commensurate with the historical significance they capture.” Their selection was very careful and each one contains an analytical index and “QR code that refers to images corresponding to the period described, thereby incorporating contemporary technological resources.”

Soon, reported the media, they will be available in libraries and institutions, which will allow access to “more than 500 documents” and “2,000 specific situations and contexts.” Digital versions are also available on the Party’s official website. If this publication feat was possible on an island without paper and with few functional printing presses, it is because China financed a run of 3,000 copies.

The publication blackout in Cuba is represented in numbers: While in 2023 more than 6,000,000 pages were printed in Cuba, in 2024 that figure dropped dramatically to 1,355,500. The shortage is not only of paper but also of political will. However, the legacy of the historic figures of the Revolution has always had priority.

The Selected Works are also promoted by Díaz-Canel, who attended the presentation at the José Martí Memorial

In the words of Abel Prieto, director of Casa de las Américas, with these books Editions Celia is making available to Cubans “70 years of an exemplary and heroic life, which we now have as a formidable guide of ethical behavior in revolutionary action.” continue reading

The Selected Works are also promoted by Díaz-Canel, who attended the presentation at the José Martí Memorial of the Plaza de la Revolución along with other high officials of the PCC: the Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee, Roberto Morales Ojeda; Vice-President Salvador Valdés Mesa and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz.

The books contain unpublished documents, speeches, letters and the campaign diary that Castro wrote in the Sierra Maestra, divided by years in each volume.

In Prieto’s hand, the books became a “compass” for “teachers, professors and student organizations” to combat the “phenomenon of dumbing things down and the erasure of memory.” Castro, he said, constantly addresses the issue in those pages, which warn against the “misrepresentation of history.”

“Prieto specifically referred to counterrevolutionary materials circulating on social networks, where artificial intelligence is used to show a Havana embellished with symbols such as a “giant McDonald’s” in the case of the Revolution’s defeat,” highlights Cubadebate, quoting the director of Casa de las Américas when he calls this a phenomenon of “illness” or “primitive fascism.”

Prieto also urged reporters to spread the book’s ideas. “You, the journalists, must work hard, see what ideas of these can be used for short audiovisuals and post them on the networks”

“An ethical sensibility runs through the whole book, from the first pages, when Raúl was very young, to the last. I discovered Raúl again with this collection and am very grateful. He was in all the battles: in the construction of the Party, in the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR),” said the official.

Prieto also urged reporters to spread the book’s ideas. “You, the journalists, must work hard, see what ideas of these can be made into short audiovisuals and post them on the networks. We must work with the networks to create a daily vindication of Cuba,” he ordered.

The leader raised the tone even more: “We are in the midst of a very serious cultural and ethical crisis. The main victims of these offensives are the new generations. Their memory is being erased, along with their national identity, their origins, their sense of belonging to a culture. Therefore, texts such as that of Raúl’s diary and, in general, these Selected Works, are weapons in this contemporary war,” he insisted.

Raúl, for his part, did not attend the book presentation. His attention was directed to the celebrations of the Communist Party, where his frequent presence is intended to calm — in addition to the rumors of his illness and death — the discontent towards the government.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Neither Ration Stores nor Cattle Are Saved From the Increase of Crime in Holguín, Cuba

The “Frontier” case in Cacocum, where a group armed with machetes and shotguns stole 61 cattle, is highlighted

In Holguín, 1,672 criminal acts were recorded in September, according to the provincial authorities. / Ahora

14ymedio, Holguín, October 3, 2025 — Crime is rampant in Holguín, and the official statistics confirm this. During the Provincial Plenary held on Thursday at the Expo Holguín fairground, it was reported that in September alone 1,672 criminal acts were recorded, an increase compared to August, with seven municipalities affected. Calixto García, Moa and Sagua de Tánamo top the list as the most problematic.

Among the homicides, robberies with force and the recurring theft of cattle, the local authorities met and presented a deluge of worrying figures, adorned with calls for “revolutionary vigilance” and criticism of the managers of ration stores and state entities, which apparently have become the favorite prey of thieves and opportunists.

Of all the cases presented, the one that attracted the most attention was the one baptized as “Frontier.” On September 1, in the town of Limoncitos (Cacocum), a custodian aged just 28 decided that caring for cows was less profitable than stealing them. And with the complicity of 12 other people, he planned the theft of 61 cattle from the dairy where he worked.

Mounted on horseback, dressed in black, with balaclavas, three shotguns and several knives, the thieves burst in as if it were a western movie. The plot ended with 13 detainees, although one, the main organizer, remains at large. The authorities claim that some of the perpetrators were arrested after an “intensive interrogation process.”

The robberies of ration stores were also at the center of the debate. In September, five incidents were reported in the municipalities of Holguín and Báguanos. continue reading

The criminals are not only aware of when the rice arrives, but could also be taking advantage of help from the workers themselves

The curious thing, officials said, is that the thefts coincided with the distribution of rice, which suggests that the criminals are not only aware of when the rice arrives, but may also be taking advantage of help from the workers themselves, or the information disseminated on Telegram.

For Joel Queipo Ruiz, First Secretary of the Party in the province, the problem is not so much the thieves but the administrators who “don’t take measures,” and the lack of “revolutionary vigilance.”

Nor do the crime statistics for state entities offer much comfort. In September, 50 events were recorded, bringing the total to 894 so far this year. The municipality of Holguín accounts for 38.2% of the incidences, with a predominance of robbery, theft and, again, the eternal problem of livestock.

The perpetrators of these crimes have shown increasing violence

Some 54.5 percent of crimes were concentrated in strategic sectors such as agriculture, trade, public health, education and water resources. To top it all off, the perpetrators of these crimes have shown increasing violence, according to the police report.

Mayarí, Urbano Noris and Banes accompany Holguín province as the most affected territories. Lack of lighting, vacant security positions and administrative mismanagement complete a scenario conducive to the increase in crime.

Finally, Queipo praised the importance of the Fourth Crime Prevention and Confrontation Exercise, held in September throughout the country, as a way to “ensure citizen peace, respect for internal order, stability and social discipline.”

Holguín, one of the most populous provinces in the country, today displays a map of insecurity that resists being whitewashed with harangues.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

“Beatings, Torture, Humiliation and Death Threats” Lead José Daniel Ferrer To Accept Exile from Cuba

The leader of UNPACU also points out his “frustration at the disunity, sectarianism and lack of effectiveness of the opposition inside and outside Cuba”

José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, in one of his live broadcasts before being arrested again / Stock photo/Facebook

14ymedio, Madrid, October 3, 2025 –The opponent José Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), accepts his exile from Cuba. He has expressed this in a handwritten letter published by his family on their social networks and sent from the prison of Mar Verde, in Santiago de Cuba, where he has been since his parole was revoked, April, 29, after having been released for three months.

Before that date, when the “last assault” on his home occurred, Ferrer explains, he had already made up his mind. “This decision was taken for the safety of my family and because of the frustration that I felt when I came out of prison to confirm the disunity, sectarianism and lack of effectiveness of the opposition inside and outside Cuba in the struggle for freedom and the well-being of our homeland,” he says, referring to his months of release.

“For years I have been subjected to brutal beatings, torture, humiliation, death threats and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by henchmen and other instruments of the worst dictatorship that the American continent has known,” begins his letter. “All with the intention of forcing me to leave my country or to renounce the non-violent struggle for freedom, democracy and human rights and the well-being of my homeland.”

In the last few months that he has been in prison, “the brutality of the dictatorship against me has exceeded all limits”

In the last few months that he has been in prison, “the brutality of the dictatorship against me has exceeded all limits.” He lists “beatings, tortures, humiliations, threats and extreme conditions,” as well as “theft of my food and toiletries” and threats against his wife, Nelva Ortega, and her children. “All with the intention of forcing me to leave continue reading

my homeland,” he says. “In the face of constant efforts by the political police to get me out of Cuba, I ended up agreeing to go into exile.”

However, he states, “since the procedures to achieve this end began, as always happens, the agents of the regime have been playing dirty: they continue with the plan of harassment, threats, humiliations, robberies and extreme conditions.” As an example, he mentions the pressure they exerted to have his marriage with Nelva take place on the “birth day of the deceased dictator,” August 13, and the “videos and recordings” that Ferrer claims they took “with the intention of producing publications that call into question our commitment to the struggle for freedom in Cuba.”

He also states that they tried to compel him to make statements and ask the Catholic Church to mediate between Havana and Washington, a dialogue, he defines, “leading to the shameful negotiation of other times: release of political prisoners in exchange for lifting sanctions and other benefits for the dictatorship.”

The opponent clarifies: “If my life and that of my family depend on me asking for such things, I prefer my death in this Nazi-style concentration camp and even the sacrifice of my family.” And he adds, without making it clear whether his departure can take place in the short term, “I leave Cuba, only with my dignity and my head held high, and not for long.”

“He deserves a welcome worthy of a hero and will receive it,” said Cuban-American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart

Nelva Ortega, who confirmed to Martí Noticias the authenticity of the letter, reiterates that the decision to accept exile “was taken after months of torture, beatings and extreme conditions of imprisonment” and that “it was the only way to protect the family and prevent them from responding with violence in such inhumane circumstances.” However, she did not clarify when the departure would occur, which, according to Ferrer in his letter, would be to the United States. In his view, it is the only country that “maintains a firm stance against the communist regime and is truly in solidarity with the peaceful opposition and the Cuban people.”

Cuban-American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart spoke on X about the opponent’s decision, calling him a “hero” and saying, “After years of imprisonment, beatings, physical and psychological torture and persecution by the murderous regime in Cuba simply for demanding freedom, he is being forced into exile. He deserves a welcome worthy of a hero and will receive it.”

For her part, the sister of the UNPACU leader, Ana Belkis Ferrer, told Spanish news agency EFE that her brother “accepted the banishment, but we do not yet know if it will be implemented because the dictatorship wants to profits from it, and José Daniel is not going to agree to any negotiations.”

The initial joy of the family for the possible release of Ferrer from prison turned into “something very frustrating,” reports EFE from its conversation with the activist’s sister, who said: “Not every human being would be willing to go through that: it’s a constant martyrdom.”

“Not every human being would be willing to go through that: it’s a constant martyrdom”

The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC), of which the UNPACU leader is president, also spoke in favor of the opponent’s decision. “We know what it will have cost him to take it,” they say in a statement. “He has the right to his own life and to be with his family.” The platform stresses that it is a determination “intimately linked to the horrors of prison where he has been treated like an animal, subjected to beatings, physical and psychological torture, which only a person of great physical strength, emotional and spiritual like his, has allowed him to endure.”

The CTDC adds that Ferrer “is and will always be, wherever he lives, an icon and an example for all of us.” The “clarity” of the opponent, they warn, “will not be undermined by any disinformation campaign of a structurally lying regime very comfortable with the ecosystem of deep fakes, fakes news and post-truth.”

On previous occasions, Ferrer had spoken out against leaving the country, as offered by State Security in exchange for not keeping him in prison and under torture. The opponent was informed of the charges against him -propaganda against the constitutional order and contempt of Díaz-Canel- two weeks after he was imprisoned.

Ferrer was violently removed from his home, also the headquarters of UNPACU, in Altamira, Santiago de Cuba, after three months of constant harassment. According to his family, the State Security agents “completely ransacked” the house and took him away, along with Nelva Ortega and their young son, Daniel José, although they were released hours later.

On the same day, April 29, Félix Navarro was also arrested with his wife, the Dama de Blanco [Lady in White] Sonia Álvarez, during a visit to the prison in Mantazas where their daughter Sayli Navarro is being held.

Both opponents were part of the group of prisoners released last January under an agreement between the regime and the Vatican and returned to prison eight days after the death of the previous pope, Francis.

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Cubans Lead the Caravan of Nearly 1,500 Migrants Denouncing Extortion in Mexico

The group is heading to Mexico City and asks for support from the authorities to regularize their immigration status

The Cubans lead the caravan that left this Wednesday from Tapachula and is heading to Mexico City. / EFE

14ymedio, Mexico City, Ángel Salinas, October 2, 2025 — There is no life for migrants in Tapachula,” Yamila Sarmiento, 38, tells 14ymedio. The woman is one of almost 500 Cubans who are part of the so-called “Caravan for Freedom,” with more than 1,500 migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, El Salvador and Haiti, who left this Wednesday for Mexico City. “We want papers to be able to work, because money is the thing,” she says.

Sarmiento decided to join because she has been listening to the same speech at the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar) for eight months: “We are understaffed; you have to wait for the message for your interview.”

She says that a couple of Venezuelans paid $1,800 to a lawyer for an interview with Comar. “The man already has papers; those of us who don’t have resources are left in a heap. In Tapachula, if you pay lawyers you can resolve things with the agents; as for the rest of us, we’re fucked.”

Rebeca García, also Cuban, told Diario del Sur that migrants are exploited and the pay is bad. They receive between 180 ($9.75) and 200 ($10.84) pesos a day . “So we can’t help our families; we left our country for them. For that reason we are leaving Tapachula, and going to the US is impossible now.”

The migrants denounce extortion by immigration agents and accuse the lawyers of collusion. / EFE

Yovani de Jesús, from Venezuela, complained that the immigration authorities “denied me the documents to regularize.” He told EFE that he has been going to Comar for seven months, first because the response did not arrive in the promised 14 working days. He was told to wait. After another long wait, he came and was given a digital piece of paper that loads but has no validity: he is still “illegal” in Mexico and without work.

Last August, a Cuban named Figueredo, 28, told this newspaper that in order to avoid “extortions” he went to the migration headquarters in mid-June. “I stood there every day for a week to get an appointment,” he complains. “You’re there, in line, and at the end they ask you to wait for the response from Comar. It never arrives; everything is corruption.” continue reading

Tapachula, even before the caravan, became a second home for 13,779 Cubans. However, as of July 5,959 of these people still did not have their immigration status regularized, confirmed a Migration employee to 14ymedio. “There are no officials in Comar, so they have delayed the delivery of documents, and this will go on for another two months,” says Yaniel Ponce de León, who still has not received his humanitarian visa.

Attorney José Luis Pérez denounced the apathy of the immigration authorities with regards to speeding up the processing of these Cubans. “Migration has violated the rules and kept thousands of people in uncertainty, stranded in Mexico. With the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of the U.S., the American dream was cut short. The only thing that migrants want is an opportunity.”

Holding up a blanket that says “With papers we can contribute more to Mexico,” the migrants intend to follow the coast of Chiapas and pass through the municipalities of Huehuetán, Huixtla, Villa Comaltitlán, Escuintla, Mapastepec, Pijijiapan, Tonalá and Arriaga.

Tapachula, even before the caravan, became a second home for 13,779 Cubans. / EFE

Some of the migrants obtained motorcycles and bicycles to help the women and children. They plan to pass through twice a day: first at 4:00 am with a rest stop at 1:00 pm. The second pass-through would be at 2:00 pm, with a rest stop at 8:00 pm.

Mexico City has become a critical destination for hundreds of migrants, who remain stranded in the absence of documents. Between fear and mistrust of institutions, they are aggravating the migration crisis.

The so-called “border effect,” which was previously concentrated in border cities such as Tijuana and Tapachula, is now being felt in the country’s capital, given the new migratory restrictions in the US since the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January.

In Tapachula, some migrants are still dealing with the scams. Jean Philippe Alexis, from Haiti, reported charges of up to 22,000 pesos ($1,200) for obtaining an interview at Comar, where he says “migrants are being used and denigrated.”

Philippe Alexis left his country because of “hunger” and to help his family. “If my country was okay, I wouldn’t have to be in Mexico,” he says. “If I get arrested for not having money, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” The Haitian says that officials do not understand that “without papers there is no work or money.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

____________

Surveillance at the ISDI Ruins Arrives Late: Doors and Windows Have Already Been Removed

The remains of the building are sold among the neighbors of the area

The Higher Institute of Industrial Design (ISDi), this Thursday. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 3 October 2025 / The Higher Institute of Industrial Design (ISDi), in the heart of Centro Habana, was under guard on all four sides by plainclothes officers on Thursday. The security came late, and just after graphic designer Esteban Aquino, in a message on social media illustrtaed with photos, reported that numerous documents from the institution — including theses, books, and catalogs — were scattered in the nearby Carlos J. Finlay Park.

“These archives were, and are, the historical and technical reference for the academic training of students. The work of those who are today excellent exponents of design, professors, tutors, authors, and great personalities is coming to an end,” lamented Aquino, himself an ISDi graduate. Sadly, he exclaimed: “The truth is, I don’t know who is inside that building, nor do I know what they do, much less what the fate of the building will be, but I believe that being ignorant does not mean being insensitive. Not knowing is not synonymous with disrespect.” And he asked: “What is the motivation that drives these people who, supposedly, were educated with principles based on respect for social property, education, and culture? What values are we talking about?”

What the undercover police are now guarding, in any case, is nothing more than a place being slowly “cannibalized,” as one neighbor told 14ymedio. “The scavengers were going to demolish the entire building,” says the woman, who watched day after day as people crept in through the gap left at the back by one of the building’s partial collapses. “They had already taken the windows and were taking the doors. If you let them, they’ll end up taking the bricks one by one.”

“I’ve been offered doors, toilets, blinds, and even bars.”

Another neighbor, who lives a few meters from the nearby bus stop, has also witnessed the building’s dismantling. “I’ve been offered doors, toilets, blinds, and even bars,” she tells this newspaper, referring to the informal market that has been fueled by ISDI spoils in recent months. “There are houses here that look like a small school inside because they’ve been built with whatever came out of there,” she says, pointing to what remains of the structure. continue reading

For decades, neighborhoods where an official institution or state building is falling into disrepair have been nourished by its remains or construction materials. “I have a neighbor who reinforced her bed frame with a slate board, and in this same tenement there are now several doors of the same color, all taken from there.”

The most deteriorated wood has also yielded benefits. “The other night, when we had a very long power outage, the neighbors around the corner built a bonfire in the street to cook on with some ISDI planks.” Despite the momentary benefit, the woman fears that the ruin will end up becoming a huge dump, and “this whole neighborhood will look even dirtier than it is.”

The building, which was originally a military hotel and officers’ club for the Spanish Army, later served as the headquarters of the Cadet School (1874-1878), the Widows and Orphans’ Asylum, the General Staff headquarters during the First American Occupation, and even the Ministry of Health before the Revolution.

Rear of the ISDI, with fences blocking access. / 14ymedio

In 1982, it was transformed into the headquarters of the Polytechnic Institute of Industrial Design, the precursor to ISDI, and, despite its great architectural, historical, and educational value, it was left to die over decades of neglect, poor renovations, and lack of maintenance.

In March 2022, the building was closed after an “architectural flaw” was discovered that endangered students and workers. “The Revolution founded the universities and always stood by them,” the official statement read, as if words alone were enough to sustain the cracked columns.

That narrative literally collapsed in July 2024, when part of the interior facade collapsed. And in January 2025, another partial collapse left an elderly woman injured and four families without access to their homes. Despite no fatalities, the symbolic impact was profound: not just a building, but a promise, an institution, and an era, had collapsed.

Even more accurate were the words of architect Lourdes Martí, founding rector of ISDi until 1988, who in 2022 had issued a public denunciation: “What happened during these last 33 years? Was it never maintained again? What architectural flaw is this that prevents the building, or part of it, from being restored? Is the goal being to destroy the building or eliminate the training of Industrial and Information Designers? Are we witnessing the end of the country’s industrial development?”

____________