October 2025 – Page 9 – Translating Cuba

“What the Agencies Are Doing to Tourists in Cuba is a Scam”

Twenty years after an idyllic first trip to the island, Marina from Spain discovers a destroyed country and deplorable service in five-star hotels.

The outdoor cafeteria of the Iberostar Selection Havana hotel, in the so-called K Tower, is empty. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Madrid, 1 October 2025 — Mountains of garbage on street corners, power outages, expensive hotels with insufficient food, towels with holes, mosquito infestations, beggars, sad streets, and people everywhere with only one plan: to leave Cuba. The island Marina visited this summer with her family bears little resemblance to the one she saw in 2004.

With that idyllic memory in mind, last August she booked a trip that included Havana and Cayo Santa María (Villa Clara) through an agency in her hometown in Andalusia, which she prefers to withhold. The experience, however, was so disastrous that the group filed a complaint with the tour operator upon their return.

To begin with, they were greeted at José Martí International Airport by a power outage , something she hadn’t expected to experience in the terminal itself and something that was unthinkable twenty years ago. Once in the capital, they were surprised by the uncollected trash everywhere. “The stench it transmits is unbearable,” she told 14ymedio. “And it’s a hotbed of disease, really.”

The palpable hunger also cconfused her, specifically the line of elderly people, women and children at the doors of El Asturianito

The palpable hunger also confused her, specifically the line of elderly people, women, and children outside El Asturianito, waiting for the employees of the popular restaurant, located across from the Capitol, to distribute the customers’ leftovers. “We didn’t see that the other time, we didn’t see that.”

Marina never imagined that in two decades, the historic center had not only not improved, but had worsened to the point of complete disrepair. Nor that the city would continue reading

no longer be that place where old-fashioned Cuban music flowed from every corner: “Havana was filled with live musicians playing everywhere all day long, and now we could only enjoy that at Floridita and La Bodeguita del Medio, and that’s it.” Nor did she imagine they would barely encounter any foreign visitors.

“We asked what was happening, why everything was so abandoned, and they told us that tourism was run directly by the Armed Forces, and since the Armed Forces started managing it, it has been deteriorating a lot,” says Marina, without knowing for sure that, in 2016, the military had indeed taken over the most successful companies from Habaguanex — a subsidiary of the Historian’s Office then headed by Eusebio Leal — and placed them under the umbrella of the Business Administration Group (Gaesa).

Marina found the absence of tourists even more striking at the Hotel Nacional, where they stayed overnight, just as she had the first time she visited Cuba, at a time when Cubans were banned from these establishments. The lack of international guests contrasted with the number of Havana residents “who came to have a drink, listen to music, and also quite a few who went to the pool.” What the guides told them was that these occasional hotel guests “are rather sympathetic to the government.”

Not everyone can afford the 6,000 pesos per person (almost $14 at the informal exchange rate) entrance fee to the National Stadium pool — 4,000 of which is for compulsory food service — when the average monthly salary doesn’t reach 7,000.

“We felt the weight of the State there. Everyone was silent. We tried to talk to people, but they were secretive.”

Dollarization is something that also shocked Marina, who says that money changers approached them inside the hotel. “People came up to us and said, ‘If you want to change, I’ll give you the exact amount,’” she explains. And that “exchange” coincided with the information reported daily by El Toque. How is it possible that a state-run establishment offers to buy foreign currency on the cheap? Marina explains that she saw the situation as “delicate”: “We felt the weight of the state there; everyone was silent. We tried to talk to people, and they were secretive.” That said, she says, was like 20 years ago.

Very different from ordinary Cubans, who, unlike in 2004, dare to talk about everything. “They knew exactly what was happening in Spain, because everyone wants to come here, and they ranted about how it’s impossible to stay there anymore, that it’s terrible.”

“Every now and then you’d find someone who’d say, ‘I’m going to Spain on such and such a date,’ or ‘I already have a flight, I’m going to Huelva, my wife is waiting for me, she’s been there for two months, and my daughter is already at school,’ or ‘I got a job as a glazier thanks to some friends I have there,’” Marina continues, highlighting the exodus taking place because of the Democratic Memory Law, which grants Spanish nationality to descendants of emigrants and whose application period expires this month. “They were very overwhelmed because they had to expedite all the paperwork, because it ends in October.”

The stories of the people she encountered gave meaning to something she observed on the plane to and from Madrid: “There were far more Cubans than there were tourists.”

“We were eating yogurts that were warm and ice creams that were completely melted.”

There were no blackouts in Havana, she says, something the hotel staff had already assured her: “They told us their power outages were minimal because they had their own generators, something others did not. In fact, on the second day we saw the NH [the Capri] completely dark, it was about 9 p.m. I imagine the people there would be affected by that situation.”

Regarding the hotel’s conditions, she says among the friends in the group everyone was saying, “Look, we paid so much, and this is like a three- or four-star hotel, because of course, the maintenance is good, but not what it should be.” They couldn’t have imagined that the worst was yet to come, in Cayo Santa María, where they stayed not in just any hotel, but in one that bills itself as five-star: Iberostar Selection Ensenachos. “The Nacional is ultra-luxurious in comparison!” she asserts.

“We were very surprised by the total neglect of maintenance,” says Marina. She lists: “The gardens with green puddles, with millions of mosquitoes swarming and biting like crazy, the blue crabs from the mangroves invading everything, taking over the complex, some tiny black birds that look like little crows [totíes] on the tables taking food…”

Being a Spanish hotel, the woman denounces, “European standards are not being met there.” The contrast with the first time she stayed at the same establishment was glaring. “Back then, everything seemed quite clean, very, very proper. Not now: they cover your plate with a piece of plastic wrap . It doesn’t have the required refrigeration. We were eating hot yogurts and completely melted ice cream.” The fact that the presentation of the dishes was crumbly and there was no one there to fix it was the least of the problems.

“They don’t have any staff. They’re maintained by four people who are already bitter and have no desire.”

There wasn’t even enough food at the all-you-can-eat buffet. “When we arrived and went to the restaurant, they told us: ‘Everything’s gone, all we have left are two sausages and two hamburgers.’” There were six people in the group. Every day, they saw that there was always the same food: hamburger, sausage, and chicken; at most, some fish. “What was happening? The sauces changed, the colors changed, but it was always the same. It was junk food,” she says. “One day I ordered a salad, and I think they took the salad from the trash can and put it on my plate, because it was so horrible.” The group’s biggest fear was getting gastroenteritis or, worse, dengue fever.

Marina continues with the grim anecdotes: “Everywhere, so dirty. The towels had holes in them. In the bathroom, a tiny little soap, not even wrapped. In a five-star hotel!” In a way, she saw the logic behind what was happening, “because they don’t have staff. It’s maintained by four people who are already bitter and have no desire.”

On the second day, they began to think about leaving, and on the third, they spoke with their agency in Spain about moving their departure a day earlier. They paid for the night they were supposed to spend in Ensenachos, according to their package, out of pocket at the Nacional, back in Havana. More than 200 euros.

“We’ve demanded that our travel agency at least refund us the money for the night we didn’t stay in the Keys,” she laments. “And we’ve also told them that what happened to us, what they’re doing to the tourists, is scamming.” A small agency, she continues, can’t afford to send people to places without information. “Why do tour operators continue selling travel packages knowing that the power is out, that not enough food is arriving, that the hotel complexes are abandoned?”

Abandoned “like ghost ships,” she says, giving as an example the Iberostar Selection Havana , which occupies the tallest building in the city, the controversial Torre K. “They told us that it was paid for with government money, that it cost I don’t know how many millions of dollars, and that they’ve given it to Iberostar to manage. But from the outside it looked like it was closed, we didn’t see much movement,” asserts Marina, who adds: “But I would never go there in my life, because it scares me, it’s a horrible place.”

The woman confesses that she had read in the press that things in Cuba were bad, “but not that bad.” The testimony she gives to 14ymedio, in any case, illustrates firsthand the official figures that, month by month, account for the dwindling tourism . Between January and August of this year, Cuba received a total of 1,259,972 international visitors, 21.64% fewer than the same period in 2024, while in the boom years, between 2015 and 2019, more than double that number arrived.

What she said also illustrates the difficult situation facing Spanish hotel chains on the island, notably Meliá and Iberostar, about which Cinco Días published a harsh article last month. For this financial daily, these tourism giants, who, despite all odds against them, “continue to redouble their commitment to maintaining and growing in Cuba,” had been hit by a “perfect storm.” There’s no way they can make ends meet on the island.

Thus, the Barceló group, also Spanish, awarded a trip to Cuba this past September to a total of 400 of its travel agents from Spain and Portugal as a reward for having promoted sales to the island since the beginning of the year. This news may answer Marina’s questions about the tour operators’ practices.

Despite everything, she maintains that she will return. “Because I love it, because nature is a luxury, because that is the future of Cuba,” she explains. “But of course, I will return when I am no longer being ripped off.”

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Peruvian Mandarins Return a Lost Flavor to Cubans

The price is 1,300 pesos a pound, almost half of a monthly pension

When the seller told her the prices of the imported products, which also included California onions, the woman’s face became a grimace. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, October 2, 2025 — First was the garlic from the US, then came the beans from Mexico, and the mandarins and oranges from Peru have now landed in Cuba . This Thursday, a street vendor near Central Park in Havana offered his glossy merchandise with the new sticker that points to the origin and the company responsible for its trade. For 1,300 pesos a pound, almost half of a monthly pension, the client could take that piece of flavor home that was lost for ages to Cubans.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a mandarin in more than five years,” said a sweet old lady who came up. When the seller told her the prices of the imported products, which also included California onions, the woman’s face became a grimace. A young man, who appeared to be more financially solvent, also approached the cart and ended up buying two pounds of mandarins. “I’ve really missed these, I don’t remember the last time I saw them,” he explained, justifying the expense.

Street vendor in Havana selling imported fruits and vegetables / 14ymedio

The steep fall in domestic agricultural production and the high prices of food, together with the attractive foreign fruit that is often cleaner and more carefully presented, have pushed diners to prefer imported fruits and vegetables, even though they cost more. Citrus fruits, which were once the pride of official propaganda, are among the most affected in recent decades by pests, hurricanes, the loss of international markets and State inefficiency.

I don’t know whether to eat them or hunt them,” the young man joked with his bag of freshly bought mandarins. “My mom tells me that when continue reading

she was a child she ate a lot of them and always had that smell on her hands, so I bought them to surprise her.” From the Murcott variety, often called Mandarina Gold, the fruits that are sold these days in the Cuban capital are much appreciated for their juicy pulp, their sweet and intense flavor, their reddish orange skin and the fact that they are easy to peel and have few seeds.

Marketed by the company Inkagold, it is unlikely that, at the time of their collection, the agricultural workers who tore them from the branches imagined that those mandarins would end up in Cuban homes. The image of the Island is associated not only with sun, beaches and catchy music, but also with citrus fruits, like the lemon used in the mojito or the oranges enjoyed at the the seashore. But this idyllic tourist postcard is far from a reality where mandarins make everyone who passes in front of a truck driver raise their eyebrows, emit sounds of amazement and salivate profusely.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In September, Cuba Received the Largest Amount of Venezuelan Crude Oil of the Year, in Addition to Oil From Russia

Despite the 52,000 barrels per day received from Pdvsa, the Island still suffers a fuel deficit

Caracas has problems taking on the volume of exports due to the shortage of ships. / Pdvsa

14ymedio, Madrid, October 2, 2025 — Venezuela exported 52,000 barrels per day (bpd) to Cuba this September, the largest known quantity so far this year and coinciding with the record of exports of the Venezuelan state oil since February 2020, which exceeded one million bpd by far. This is, to date, the only month in which the Island has received an amount close to what was agreed between the two countries in 2000. In March it was almost 50,000 bpd, but low amounts have dominated the first nine months of the year, meaning that Caracas will again have broken the pact between Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

This, at least, comes from the data available and provided monthly by the Reuters agency, although it doesn’t rule out the possibility that Havana is receiving fuel from Pdvsa outside of official channels, according to an alleged secret plan mentioned by President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy. In addition, last week the Akademik Gubkin arrived in Cuba with 740,000 barrels of Russian oil.

Despite the escalation of hostilities between the regime of Nicolás Maduro and the Administration of Donald Trump, the results for the oil industry are going full steam ahead for Venezuela

Cuba has suffered this September from huge shortages of electricity, although in the last days of the month a slight relief has been noted, according to reports from different provinces. De la O Levy said weeks ago that the biggest problem this time has been the shortage of lubricants rather than that of fuel.

Despite the escalation of hostilities between the regime of Nicolas Maduro and the Administration of Donald Trump, the results of the oil industry are in full swing for Venezuela. Sales to the US have also continue reading

reached considerable volumes: in September it received 108,000 bpd from Pdvsa, well above the 60,000 bpd that it imported the previous month but still far from the 294,000 that it bought in January 2025, a record to date.

That month, shortly after the inauguration of the US president, the White House announced the end of the license that the administration of Joe Biden had granted to the company Chevron to operate in Venezuela. The first date set for the extinction of the document was April 3, but it was later agreed to extend it until May 27.

A few days before the deadline, the American press announced that the Government had negotiated a new “minimum activity license” under which “essential maintenance operations” could be carried out, but no new investments and no oil exports.

At the end of July, the new concession came to fruition. Nothing has been known about the details, other than the alleged intention that a significant part of the money from the sale of oil cannot be transferred in any way to the Government of Nicolás Maduro or deposited in frozen accounts outside of Venezuela. Last week, several specialized media published that one of the conditions imposed by the US consists of a cap on the volume of sales, which cannot exceed 50% of what Chevron extracts from its wells.

Last week, several specialized media published that one of the conditions imposed by the US consists of a cap on the volume of sales, which cannot exceed 50% of what Chevron extracts from its wells

In total, exports from Venezuela reached 1,093,667 bpd, even more than in May, when it reached 1.06 million. The quantity sold this September is 13% more than in August and 39% more when compared to September 2024, which shows that the sanctions have not affected the situation of Pdvsa.

The main buyer, once again, has been China, which took 84% of Venezuelan oil exports, either directly or indirectly, because, recalls Reuters, these exchanges are carried out through “little-known intermediaries” trading in crude oil to circumvent sanctions.

During that second quarter, Pdvsa accumulated a good amount of oil in the Orinoco Belt, the country’s main producing region, which it is now exporting, says Reuters. Meanwhile, it has been importing from Russia and China naphtha and light crude oil, which are essential to dilute the extra heavy oil that Venezuela produces. The latter is reflected in total imports of diluents, which rose from 99,000 bpd in August to 41,000 bpd in September.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Parish and Pharmacy: The Catholic Church Tries to Alleviate the Medication Shortage in Sancti Spíritus

“I don’t even go to state pharmacies because I know there’s nothing like that.”

Outside the Major Parish Church of the Holy Spirit, patients and family members of chronically ill people gather every Saturday. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, September 7, 2025 — Some have gray hair while others are young, united by their need for some of the medications in short supply at government-run pharmacies. Outside Holy Spirit Church, patients and relatives of the chronically ill gather every Saturday looking for drugs to treat fevers, diabetes, or asthma. These medications are distributed free of charge here upon presentation of a medical prescription.

At the corner of Boulevard and Honorato del Castillo Park, Belkis is one of the more than 2.5 million Cubans with hypertension waiting in line. “I came to see if they have enalapril or some other medication that will help me control my blood pressure because right now I have good days and others with very dangerous spikes.” The 66-year-old Sancti Spiritus resident has been coming here for months in search of the pills she needs.

“I have a card but, since the beginning of this year, I haven’t been able to buy all the medicines I need at the pharmacy. Sometimes they have them and some times they don’t,” she says. Cuba’s drug shortage primarily continue reading

affects products manufactured on the island, which accounts for 80% of the basic supply. “To say that this situation will be resolved in the next few days would be irresponsible,” Health Minister José Ángel Portal Miranda admitted last year. The situation has only worsened since then.

Caption — Medical accessories and devices to alleviate the pain of bedridden patients are also distributed at the facility / 14ymedio

For Belkis, the service provided by the city’s Catholic Church has made the difference between “ending up in a hospital emergency room every week or leading a more or less normal life.” The facility also distributes medical supplies and devices for bedridden patients. “I came for some disposable diapers for my grandmother, who has been bedridden for over a year,” explains a young man who has received gauze, cotton and cream to alleviate the elderly woman’s bedsores. “I don’t even bother with the government’s pharmacies because I know they don’t have any of those things.”

Other religious communities, such as the growing number of evangelical groups, also offer medications, vitamins, nutritional supplements and supplies for hospital patients. While the black market offers a wide array of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, public health officials warn of the dangers of buying these items there. “I feel safer coming here than looking for them on the street,” admits Belkis as she waits her turn in line at the small parish dispensary. If she can get some enalapril this Saturday, she will have a few worry-free days ,” she claims.
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The US Issues a Travel Alert for Cuba Because of the Increase of Chikungunya

In addition to infants, those over 65 and those with diabetes or heart disease are at high risk

Matanzas polyclinic, which a few days ago issued a health alert because of the increase of Chighungunya, dengue and oropouche / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, September 30, 2025 — This Tuesday, the US Embassy in Havana issued a health alert for anyone who wants to travel to Cuba due to the outbreak of Chikungunya throughout the entire island. The risk is determined at Level 2, which requires “extra precautions.”

In its statement, issued in English and Spanish, the diplomatic headquarters warns that this virus is transmitted by mosquitoes, and that symptoms, mainly fever and joint pain, appear between three and seven days after the bite.

Other symptoms, they indicate, may be headaches or rashes. “Most people recover within a week; however, some may experience severe joint pain for months or years after such an acute illness.” There is no specific treatment for Chikungunya, and, although death from this disease is rare, newborns infected at the time of delivery are at risk of suffering a more serious illness. Therefore, pregnant women are asked to “reconsider” traveling to the Island.

continue reading

The media of that province added to this risk another one that the Washington Embassy does not mention: dengue fever

In addition to infants, people over 65 and those with diabetes or heart disease are also at risk.

The US Embassy publishes this alert days after the Matanzas press issued its own for the territory, because of “the high incidence of chikungunya.” The media of that province added to this risk another one that the Washington Embassy does not mention: dengue fever. Both viruses are caused from bites by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes Aegypti.

Then, Andrés Lamas Acevedo, director of the Provincial Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in Matanzas, denied that there was a mysterious disease in Cárdenas, after weeks of reports by communities that were decimated by a condition that those sickened described as “very debilitating” and that “causes joint inflammation, high fever and general discomfort.”

The official specified that the viruses recorded were dengue (serotypes 3 and 4), Chikungunya and, to a lesser extent, Oropouche. However, the lack of reagents in crowded polyclinics means that many patients go through the disease without knowing for sure what they have. Washington’s focus on Chikungunya sheds light.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Capping Prices in Agro-Markets in Havana Is a New Attempt ‘To Regulate Marketing’

“When they say they’re going to lower prices, the products disappear,” complains the population

The measure is announced just one day after the end of the Island-wide illegality control exercise. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, September 30, 2025 — After closing the fourth exercise of control of illegalities last Sunday, the government of Havana announced on Monday a new price cap on various foods. This is the umpteenth “effort to regulate the marketing of agricultural products and ensure greater equity,” a strategy that has so far yielded few results.

Signed by the governor of Havana, Yanet Hernández Pérez, the resolution, whose date of entry into force is unclear, repeals all previous rules in this regard and imposes a new system of maximum prices for the retail sale of 29 products marketed at agricultural fairs. Among the most prominent are yucca, sweet potato, frying plantain and fruit plantain, as well as pumpkin, which may not exceed 25 pesos per pound. Guava was estimated at 20, while pineapples and a pound of plantain was estimated at 35.

For the rest of the products, prices go up: rice to 155, charcoal to 800, malanga can be sold for 55 or 75 pesos depending on the variety, and beans, if inputs were delivered to the producer, are at 196 pesos. Otherwise, they will be sold at a maximum of 285 per pound.

In these cases there were 19 products with higher maximum prices

Maximum retail prices were also imposed on truck drivers, tradespeople, non-agricultural cooperatives and “supply and demand markets managed by Acopio.” In these cases, 19 products had higher maximum prices. continue reading

A pound of cassava, for example, can be sold at 45 pesos, almost twice what is required for agricultural fairs. Other products follow the same trend: frying and fruit plantain, cucumber and guava at 40 pesos; malanga at 75 or 110 and plantain at 50. However, others like rice, beans and some vegetables have the same price.

Price lists are established on the basis of three types of marketing: purchase from the producer, wholesale and retail. For example, the farmer must sell a pound of yuca for 20 pesos to the wholesaler, who will market it for 24 pesos, while the retailer will offer it for 30 pesos.

The list also includes sweet potato, frying and fruit plantain, in addition to pumpkin, which all have the same price cap as cassava. The rest varies between 25 and 250 pesos depending on the product and from which entity it is purchased.

The new price caps will take effect in all municipalities of the capital, adds the resolution, which insists that its purpose is to “improve transparency in the marketing of food, protect consumers and strengthen State control over prices in a challenging economic context exacerbated by the intensification of the blockade.”

“If instead of capping prices, they made it easier for farmers…”

It is no accident that prices are being controlled just after the State deployed its inspectors throughout the country for a whole week. According to the results published by the official press upon the closure of the exercise against illegalities, one of the violations most frequently found was precisely the sale of food at “abusive prices.”

However, the residents of Havana already see the disappearance of the regulated products and their sale on the black market, as happens every time the State announces a price cap. “When they say they’re going to lower prices, the products disappear. The private stores have all the goods, and the State ones have nothing and also sell at high prices. We can give the example of the potato: they only gave it to us once in the so-called basic basket. The rest was sold by street vendors at high prices. Here we hardly trust anything, we only have to wait and see,” said a reader in the comments section of the Tribuna de La Habana page on Facebook.

“If instead of capping the price, they should make it easier for the farmers to grow crops; for example, giving them fuel to prepare the land, fumigation products and fertilizers, and facilitating the movement of goods to the city. They can talk about lowering prices, but this is what makes farmers leave and do something else,” criticized another from the point of view of the farmers. They, like many sellers, have complained many times that prices do not cover the investment needed to plant or buy food.

However, the State seems to be more focused on imposing standards than on solving the problem at its root, and, in the long run, the fines collected for price violations bring in millions of pesos.

Last week alone, 7,500 fines were imposed throughout the Island as part of the illegal activity control exercise resulting from more than 12,000 inspections. The sanctions amount to almost 24 million pesos collected, to which are added seizures of all types of products that go to the State companies responsible for marketing them.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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In Placetas, a Woman Is Killed by Her Husband, Who Then Takes His Own Life

The killer of a young man in Ciego de Ávila had a previous relationship with the victim’s partner.

The bodies were discovered by a neice in their home, near Tabaquería Reloba. /Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, August 25, 2025 (delayed translation) — The murder of Rosa Delia Morales and the subsequent suicide of her husband and assailant in Placetas, Villa Clara, has not yet been reported in the official press. However, the Alas Tensas Observatory confirmed the crime, which took place on 22 August. Also, as usual, friends and relatives shared their grief on social media. One of her friends, Diamara Bosch, corroborated the facts to 14ymedio.

“She was an excellent person and very special,” said the woman in a private message. According to reports on Facebook, it was a niece who discovered the bodies in the couple’s home, located on Calle 4 del Norte, between 4 and 5 del Oeste, near the Tabaquería Reloba, according to a neighbour. Morales’ throat was slit and the scene was “Dantesque”, according to other witnesses.

The victim was a native of the town of Villaclare and worked at the Chiquitico Fabregat sugar mill.

“A noble and good person who did not deserve this”, said Milagros Núñez Martínez, who explained she was a friend of hers from when they were at school together in the Lidia Doce camp in Remedios. The victim was a native of that town in Villaclare and worked at the Chiquitico Fabregat sugar mill.

Regarding the partner, Rubén Caña, nicknamed El Caña, he is said to have worked in the Ministry of Sugar, both in the transport base and in the administration of a camp site, and he is from Placetas itself.

One of the pages that reported the news criticised the “authorities’ inadequate response” after the tragedy: “The police arrived late, without mortuary boxes or adequate transport to lift the bodies, which made people angrier and frustrated”. It continued: “This poor response not only shows a lack of resources, but also the absence of proper procedures for dealing with this kind of emergency, leaving the victims and their families even more helpless”. continue reading

Yisan Arrechea, 32, received “multiple stab wounds”.

Another crime involving partners, but with a man as the victim, was committed in Lugones , in Ciego de Ávila. According to a report on the Crímenes y Desaparecidos en Cuba website, Yisan Arrechea, 32, was “stabbed multiple times” and then had his throat slit by two men, one of them a former prisoner who had had a previous relationship with his victim’s partner.

The assailants are on the run, according to the sources who reported the incident, which has also not been mentioned by the official media .

Translated by GH

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Three New Femicides Reported, Two in Holguín and One in Matanzas

Damaris Ricardo, 48 years old was “violently attacked” by her parrtner, who then killed himself.

In August, seven femicides were reported on the island. / YoSíTeCreo en Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, September 3, 2025 (delayed translation) — Three new femicides recorded during the last month in Cuba. The Observatorio de Género Alas Tensas reported the killing of Damaris Ricardo Martínez, Dayli Villa Ortiz and Yolennis Rojas Rojas. Two of the attacks happened in August and the third one in July.

According to the NGO, last August 28th, Damaris Ricardo, 48 years old, “was violently attacked by her partner, who took his own life afterwards. The woman’s body was found by the police in the Cueto municipality, in Holguín.

The second reported case was in Matanzas. Dayli Villa Ortiz, 24 years old, died at the hands of her partner in their home in Carlos Rojas, Matanzas. “Sadly this terrible act took place in front of one of Dayli’s daughters, who, hopefully will receive the specialised support she needs” said Alas Tensas.

Finally, there was a case reported last July 29th. This was Yolennis Rojas Rojas, 32 years old, stabbed to death by her husband in the Rafael Freyre municipality in Holguín. This occurrence “underlines the urgent need for specialised protection systems to support women fleeing violent homes. Yolennis tried to do it and was helped by her father, who was injured and nearly died”, added the organisation. The woman leaves two small children. continue reading

The aggression “underlines the urgent need for specialised protection systems to support women fleeing violent homes”

With these three new cases confirmed by the observatory, this brings the total number up to 28 femicides so far this year, according to 14ymedio’s calculation.

In August, the number of such violent attacks reached an alarming level, with seven murders. The first was Mailenis Blanco Amor, 47 years of age, on August 4th in Piareña district of Puerta de Golpe, in Consolación del Sur Municipality.

One day later, on August 5th, there was another one in Holguín city. 56 year old Milagros Batista Estévez died at the hands of her ex-partner, in her home in Alex Urquiola.

The third victim in August was Bárbara Elena Tejería Magdaleno. also 56 years of age, living in Calabazar, Boyeros, in Havana. She was attacked on August 11th with a machete by her partner, who denied having seen her. Bárbara’s body was found three days after in some waste land in Las Cañas slum. The attacker killed himself shortly after.

Another case confirmed by the ONG was Ledisvannielis Acosta Echavarría, 19 years old, on August 12th. Her body was found in the bath in her home, in calle Amistad between San José and Barcelona, in Central Havana.

The last instance reported by the observatory was August 25th. Rosa Delia Morales, between 61 and 62 years old. She was attacked in her house in Placetas, Villa Clara, August 22nd, by her partner, who later killed himself.

Translated by GH

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