March 2026 – Page 10 – Translating Cuba

Rosa María Payá: “The Berlin Wall of Our Times Can Now Be Torn Down”

The opposition leader, who presented the Liberation Agreement project in Miami, spoke about a future transition in Cuba in an interview with the Spanish newspaper ‘El Mundo’.

The release agreement was signed this Monday in Miami. / @EmmaRincon

14ymedio, Madrid, 2 March 2026 — Part of the Cuban exile community in Miami gathered this Monday in the Varela Room of the Hermitage of Charity to learn about a new opposition alliance called the Liberation Agreement. The presentation was given by Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, coordinator of the Cuban Resistance Assembly, and Rosa María Payá, who holds the same position within Pasos de Cambio [Steps for Change] (a platform of which Cuba Decides is a part).

Both have now joined forces in this proposal for “the release and consolidation of a comprehensive plan for the restoration of Democracy and the Rule of Law in Cuba, constituting a democratic alternative for Cubans and offering a viable framework for national reconstruction,” the organizers maintain.

Payá, a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and daughter of the late Orlando Payá, was interviewed earlier in the day by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, to which she said, with hope, that this time she truly believes in imminent change in Cuba. “The Berlin Wall of our times can now be torn down,” she said.

Throughout the conversation, the opposition leader defends the role of organizations abroad as unifying forces that can help manage systemic change. She asserts that, over the past two years, her NGO has been working with six documents prepared by different platforms to develop a phased guide outlining the liberation, stabilization, transition, and ultimately, democratization of the country.

In addition, she said, there is another team dedicated exclusively to boosting economic recovery, which she considers urgent, though not as urgent as political change. And she is also working on the strategy of a team that can lead Cuba’s economic recovery. “If there’s one thing we Cubans understand very clearly, it is who is responsible for the misery continue reading

in Cuba, and that responsibility lies with the Castro family and the group of generals in power, who manage that power through an intelligence apparatus that is also a repressive apparatus. The worst of all the crises is the political crisis, which keeps hundreds of people in prison for political reasons, simply for speaking their minds or trying to survive,” she declared.

Payá believes the United States is the most relevant international actor in “helping the Cuban people” at this time, and she is also grateful to it for making the prospect of change more real today than it has been in the last 67 years. “Those in power have the weapons and are willing to use them against the unarmed people. Given this reality, international pressure is also necessary, and this pressure has changed qualitatively thanks to the actions of the U.S. government, both in weakening the network of support that came from authoritarianism to the Cuban regime, such as subsidies from Venezuela, and in imposing direct sanctions on Cuban repressors,” she emphasizes.

However, she also believes that “it is not the place of the US to define, nor do I think it is seeking to define or direct the Cuban people.” In that sense, Payá also responds to the possibility that the aforementioned talks between Washington and Havana will include a Cuban “Delcy,” something she considers practically a given, as is the certainty that these individuals—from within the regime—will have to be dealt with.

“Of course, it will have to work with the people who operate those existing structures to definitively transform them. That’s why the process has phases, and that’s why it’s called a transition. It’s not that there will be free elections in Cuba tomorrow, but we will have a timeline for them to take place once we can transform the state and guarantee the rights and freedoms necessary for the elections to happen,” she admits. However, she defers to speaking with the White House when asked if it is Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Raúl Castro’s grandson, with whom U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is dealing.

Payá stated in the interview that “system change in Cuba requires forcing a military group to submit to the sovereign will of the citizens.”

Payá stated in the interview that “system change in Cuba requires forcing the military to submit to the sovereign will of the people,” and that this process requires, precisely, that the people mobilize. She understands, however, that the regime continues to repress, as demonstrated by the detention of the El4tico influencers, and therefore urges the international community to strongly support a democratization process in Cuba.

“The fact that Cubans are physically disappearing from the island (since ’11J’ — the Island-wide protests of 11 July 2021 — almost two million have fled, mostly young people) is like the ultimate metaphor for communism and what that regime means, a regime that destroys the souls and bodies of human beings. This is very concrete, very literal, and devastating. That is why there is a sense of urgency: Cubans are so clear that the only way out of the crisis is to end the dictatorship,” she asserts.

The initiative presented this Monday was attended by members of various organizations who signed the agreement after the opening speeches. Just two weeks ago, Cubans from both inside and outside the island also signed the “Agreement for a Free Cuba,” an initiative promoted by civil organizations with one objective: to demand an end to the dictatorship and a transition to democracy.

That document urged, among other things, the creation of a group “tasked with laying the foundations for a process of truth, justice, memory, and reconciliation, which would coordinate the main aspects of the transitional period.” More than a hundred people, including economists, writers, and artists, signed the proposal.

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The Crisis Hits the Official Press Head-On: Cuba’s State Newspaper Granma Will Be Printed Only Once a Week

In the case of Cuba’s provincial newspapers, they will stop circulating in print due to the energy crisis.

The Cuban Government’s pro-official newspapers, including Granma, will now be printed only once a week. / Granma/Ariel Cecilio Lemus

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, February 28, 2026 / The Cuban Government’s ‘officialist’ newspapers, including Granma, will now be printed only once a week, and the publication on paper of provincial state newspapers is being completely suspended due to the unprecedented energy crisis affecting the Island, a hard blow to the propaganda machinery of the Havana regime.

The state-run Cuban media themselves reported this Saturday on the decision, adopted by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, which cited as justification “the tightening of the blockade by the United States Government.”

The announcement explains that the newspapers Granma, the official organ of the Communist Party, and Juventud Rebelde will be printed and distributed, in an eight-page format, only on Tuesdays, starting next week.

In addition, the regional newspapers, already limited in frequency, will “stop being printed” for the time being. Each of Cuba’s 14 provinces has its own state-run regional print publication.

The regional newspapers, already limited in frequency, will “stop being printed” for the time being.

The impact of the current crisis “on fuel availability” is the main argument authorities have put forward for this cutback. The shortage of oil not only affects the printing of newspapers but also their transportation to distribution centers and newsstands throughout the country.

Something similar has happened with several provincial radio stations that have had to go off the air or modify their programming due to the prolonged daily blackouts, which hinder and damage station equipment continue reading

and have made their operations unsustainable. Such is the case of Radio Sancti Spíritus and Radio Ángulo.

The situation in Cuba has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the United States Government and the threat of tariffs on countries that supply oil to the Havana regime. However, the energy crisis had been worsening even before that. President Miguel Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged on February 5 that the country had not received oil since December.

The starting point was already worrying, as the Island had been enduring six years of a severe economic crisis, with a cumulative loss of more than 15% of its gross domestic product and more than 20% of its population.

Currently, gas stations are practically out of fuel; hospitals are suspending basic treatments and operating at minimal capacity; public transportation has essentially disappeared; garbage is piling up in the streets due to a lack of fuel for trucks, and food prices are skyrocketing.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Paranoia in Havana: Nighttime Military Convoys, Mysterious Tractor-Trailers and Explosions

Special Troops vehicles carrying soldiers in bulletproof vests were traveling last night along the Vía Blanca.

Military exercises in Cuba have become more frequent since the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. / X / Gladys Martínez Verdecia

14ymedio, Havana, March 1, 2026 —The scene seemed straight out of a war movie, the kind shown on weekends, but it took place on the streets of Havana, on one of its busiest arteries. “Special Troops vehicles, with soldiers standing up, wearing their bulletproof vests,” a Havana resident who witnessed the convoy while driving along the Vía Blanca told this newspaper, shortly before 10 p.m. on Saturday.

“Pickup trucks and vans full of military personnel, patrol cars, and state vehicles were escorting a convoy of tractor-trailers with their contents covered,” he added. The column later turned onto the Carretera Central. “What caught my attention was the hour and that, despite being large, they were moving quietly, as if trying to go unnoticed.” In his view, they could have been transporting heavy weaponry to other provinces, although he cannot confirm it. Opacity is part of the landscape.

It was not the only sign. Shortly after dawn on Sunday, detonations were heard from the Playa area. “We’ve already felt some today,” said a resident of El Vedado. In a city that has gradually lost the noise of the classic American cars and where blackouts silence even the hum of fans, the sharp blast of a military exercise bursts in as a reminder that the country lives in a permanent state of alert.

Each statement is amplified by the Cuban propaganda apparatus as proof of an imminent threat.

Recent months have been a calendar of upheavals. The capture in Caracas of Nicolás Maduro during a U.S. operation that left at least 32 Cubans dead, as acknowledged by the Government itself, shook the official narrative. Havana portrayed the deceased as heroes and forcefully reactivated the doctrine of the “war of all the people.” Since then, military exercises have occurred with greater frequency and continue reading

visibility.

On February 18, another event heightened internal tension: a riot at Canaletas prison in Ciego de Ávila left several dead and numerous injured, according to relatives of the inmates. The regime confirmed “the incident” but avoided specifying the number of victims. Official silence once again opened the door to rumors.

On February 25, a new episode strained relations with the United States. A speedboat coming from Florida was intercepted near Cayo Falcones, in Villa Clara. The official version maintains that the occupants fired first and that the border guards’ response left four dead and six wounded among the expedition members. The authorities spoke of weapons, explosives, and infiltration plans. From Washington came partial confirmations and nuances, but the fact remains that four compatriots died in national waters at the hands of other Cubans, an event that reopens historical wounds.

In this context, Donald Trump’s rhetoric has added pressure to the scenario. The U.S. president has hardened his tone toward Havana and has even spoken of a possible “friendly takeover” of the Island. Each statement is amplified by the Cuban propaganda apparatus as proof of an imminent threat.

Will we be killed by enemy bombs or will we continue to be battered by shortages, disease, building collapses, and the lack of medicines?

On Friday, February 27, the country marked National Defense Day. In several municipalities, combat-readiness exercises were carried out, along with militia mobilizations and drills by the Production and Defense Brigades. President Miguel Díaz-Canel supervised maneuvers in the western part of the country, surrounded by olive-green uniforms and civilians training in shooting practice. The rhetoric insisted on the need to be ready to “confront and defeat” any aggression.

Images showed men and women learning to assemble and disassemble weapons, reviewing plans for a hypothetical external enemy. But outside the cameras, in bread lines and at bus stops, the conversation was different: are we really on the brink of an invasion, or are we witnessing a new chapter in the pedagogy of fear? Will enemy bombs kill us, or will we continue to be struck by shortages, disease, collapsing buildings, and the lack of medicines?

Thousands of miles away, the bombings in Iran, the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the escalation in the Middle East complete the landscape of global uncertainty. Each external conflict is presented in Cuba as yet another piece on the chessboard threatening the Island. The tractor-trailers moving at night with their covered cargo become a metaphor for a country where what is essential remains hidden. The detonations echoing from the west are a reminder that the State is always ready for war, even though the most urgent battle continues to be against scarcity and disillusionment.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Corruption, Nepotism, and False Measurements Reign at Cuba’s Institute of Meteorology

An Insmet employee calls José Rubiera a “parasite” and denounces the closure of at least 10 of the agency’s stations.

The historic Santiago de Las Vegas train station has been abandoned and is currently in ruins / Courtesy

14ymedio, 1 March 2026 — This week’s announcement of a United Nations-funded plan to “improve the quality and accuracy of weather forecasts” in Cuba coincided with the delivery to 14ymedio of a devastating testimony about “corruption and nepotism” affecting the Institute of Meteorology (Insmet). “Only those of us who work here know,” explains a young employee at the Casablanca station who asks not to be named.

Currently, half of the personnel remaining at Insmet are over 65 years old: “Rehired retirees who earn double for doing nothing,” the worker asserts. Among these rehired retirees, the renowned Dr. José Rubiera, 80, stands out. He “already forgets the names and years of hurricanes” and manages to earn a considerable amount of money through his YouTube channel and other private contracts.

It was not a committee of experts or a proficiency exam that put him there: it was by political order

“Even though he doesn’t need it, he has a contract with Insmet, like a parasite,” says the young man with heartfelt annoyance, adding that the people still believe that Rubiera is the best meteorologist in Cuba, simply because “he was the one who went out with every cyclone,” without taking into account that whoever put him there was not a commission of experts or a proficiency exam: “It was by political order, for being a deputy and a member of the PCC, like everything else that is done in Cuba.”

José Rubiera and Fidel Castro on an episode of the Round Table TV program. / Cubadebate

The same procedure was followed with Ailyn Justiz, the current head of the Center for Atmospheric Physics, who was assigned the position after the previous head was dismissed for expressing an “incorrect” political opinion on social media. “Ailyn, on the other hand, has the perfect profile: she is a member of the PCC and a deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power, but she has very little knowledge of meteorology.”

The worker points to the unreliability of the data transmitted by Insmet staff, where there is widespread discontent due to appalling working conditions. “The observers stationed at the stations fabricate numbers to justify their salaries,” he explains. For example, some independent meteorologists have questioned the supposed zero-celsius degree record at Indio Hatuey, as the station’s measurements are inconsistent and there are numerous physical reasons to disprove the record.

The professionals have resigned due to discontent over their low salaries and the insecurity of the facilities, which have already suffered frequent break-ins. / Courtesy

However, this record will not be reviewed or refuted under any circumstances, since the Insmet officially recognized it and the news went viral worldwide. Should any questions arise that surface on social media, they would immediately be dismissed with the assurance that “everything is working perfectly.”

Of the 68 weather stations in the system, at least ten have closed due to a lack of professionals who have resigned in protest over their low salaries and the insecurity of the facilities, which have already suffered frequent assaults. continue reading

At least ten stations have closed due to lack of staff and resources. / Courtesy

Among the stations that have ceased operations is the one in Santiago de las Vegas. Although this facility has decades of history, it has been abandoned for over a year and is now in ruins. It is currently occupied by unknown individuals as an illegal dwelling, and its records have been lost. Other Insmet facilities that have suffered similar fates include the historic stations at Cabo de San Antonio, Güira de Melena, Colón, and Unión de Reyes. At the Tapaste station, only the station manager remains, and she only takes sporadic measurements.

Despite the organization’s precarious situation, none of its top officials have been singled out or sanctioned. While the sector continues to suffer from shortcomings and resource shortages, the directors are using the money for scientific tourism, denounces the Casablanca specialist.

“The three main people responsible for this (although not the only ones) are the general director, Celso Pazos Alberdi; the deputy director Yinelis Bermúdez – a specialist in censoring information – and Ailyn Justiz, who allows the whole disaster at the forecasting center and spends her life in PCC meetings,” the worker asserts.

While the sector continues to suffer from failures and resource shortages, executives are using the money to promote scientific tourism.

The poor state of the meteorological infrastructure is evident in the absence of station reports on the Insmet website itself. Among the persistent problems are various technical deficiencies: “They no longer conduct forecast assessments and have hired technicians with inflated templates to create ‘maps’ using Windows Paint, which is an embarrassment for a professional.”

To stop the loss of specialists, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA) has decided to increase the salaries of workers at three of its centers, and especially at Insmet itself. Employees have been asked not to divulge the news of the raise, apparently to avoid complaints from professionals in other scientific fields who deserve the same treatment commensurate with their work, but who receive meager salaries.

“The increase, which will arrive in March, is around double the current amount –although that doesn’t mean it will be enough– and the goal is for the Insmet staff to stay, especially in Casablanca, since most of the professionals at that station have resigned to go and work at the airport, where they are paid between 12,000 and 20,000 pesos, plus incentives.”

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A Water Main Failure Unleashes a Torrent in the Streets of a Havana Without Water

The incident reignites criticisms of the deteriorating water system, as residents report weeks without water.

Children play in the floodwaters that have taken over the streets. / Image taken from social media.

14ymedio, Havana, March 1, 2026 / A failure in Havana’s hydraulic system has caused interruptions in the water supply in Guanabacoa and several areas of East Havana. The break has also caused a major flood at the intersection of Calzada de San Miguel and 1st Street, in the municipality of San Miguel del Padrón

The powerful water leak gushing from the road flooded the streets uncontrollably, even reaching nearby homes. Videos circulating on social media show children playing in the strong current, as if it were a river. The irony of seeing so much water flowing in a city suffering from chronic water shortages generated reactions of both astonishment and outrage.

According to the state-owned water company Aguas de La Habana, the break occurred around 4:00 pm this Saturday, affecting a 48-inch pipeline in the Nudo A Tanque María Cristina main. As a safety measure and to facilitate repair work, seven pumps at the El Gato Water Supply Plant have been shut down.

In the comments on the official post, several users reported that the water supply problem extends beyond this incident. Residents pointed to supply failures that have lasted for weeks in areas as diverse as continue reading

Old Havana, Alturas de La Lisa, Luyanó, Altahabana, Arroyo Arenas, Playa, and Cotorro.

Some users commented that the pipe was already damaged, but the authorities had not addressed the issue.

The incident highlights the fragility of the capital’s water infrastructure, which has suffered decades of deterioration without adequate repairs and faces a demand that exceeds the system’s actual capacity. In the news report published by the Havana government on its official profile, some users commented that the pipe was already damaged, but the authorities had not addressed the issue.

The indignation and skepticism of these reactions are framed within a situation where these supply system failures, as well as the persistent incidents in the electrical system, convert the basic into a constant challenge.

Havana Water Company announced that it will provide an update when repairs are completed and service is restored. In the meantime, residents of the affected areas will continue to experience interruptions. This lack of water supply adds to the current crisis and the scarcity that is suffocating an increasingly discontented population.

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The Anxiety of the Disconnected Cuban

Nothing that depends on internet access is guaranteed on the Island

The phenomenon known as FOMO (fear of missing out) is causing people to climb water tanks to see if they can get a 4G signal. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, February 28, 2026 – I walk to the corner of the rooftop, raise my arm, and lean forward. A signal bar appears on my phone screen. All the accumulated messages begin to appear, and just as many struggle to come in. The only sound is the hum of a nearby generator in a ministry. The neighborhood falls silent in the blackout, heavier and denser than the peace of the graves.

Nothing that depends on internet access is guaranteed in Cuba. Local mobile apps, which until a few years ago organized food deliveries, passenger transport, or contact with construction workers, are useless most of the time. Only in the early morning hours does web browsing seem to loosen up somewhat and flow, but who would think of ordering a pizza at four in the morning? What’s the point of hiring a plumber shortly after midnight?

There are neighborhoods and then there are neighborhoods. A relative who lives in Vedado tells me I can go to her house anytime to check my email. Hers is a privileged zone. There are hardly any blackouts because it’s connected to a “hospital circuit” that ran out of fuel a while ago to power its generators and must maintain the lights in the surrounding houses, even when all of Havana is in darkness. I do the math: about a forty-minute walk there, another forty minutes to get back. Almost an hour and a half just to download my emails.

Sometimes I miss the days of telegrams. When the postman’s booming voice called out a name in the tenement where I lived, we all knew it was something brief, quick, and probably urgent. People wrote short sentences, without prepositions or compound verbs. Every word cost money, and you couldn’t waste it on embellishments. “Aunt dead, funeral tomorrow”; “Born, eight pounds”; “No wedding, groom left”; or “Send money for the wake.” That’s how we found out about the most important things.

But now, no. Now there are memes to watch, emails loaded with multi-megabyte images sent from all over the world, Valentine’s Day cards that take minutes to download, audio recordings a friend made on the Madrid metro, taking his time, forgetting that we envy the speed at which smoke signals travel. There are reels, heated debates to follow on Facebook, discussions where everyone wants to have the last word, and videos, with faces practically glued to the lens, filmed inside cars parked outside enormous shopping malls in Miami or Tampa.

Anxiety is growing. We’re not aware, nor could we be. The so-called FOMO (fear of missing out ) has people in this city climbing water tanks to see if they can get a 4G signal and those blessed Facebook posts will finally load on their phones. It was one thing when we didn’t know what we were missing, and quite another now, when the abysmal telecommunications service robs us of the internet users we’ve become, that we have constructed through years of social media presence. More than a deficiency, this is an amputation. continue reading

Infanta and San Lázaro Park in Central Havana is one of the few remaining Wi-Fi hotspots in Havana. / 14ymedio

An architect friend has arrived in Cuba after more than a decade living in Europe to bury her mother. Now she has to arrange for someone to care for her father, who has serious mobility issues and is almost 80 years old. But most of her contacts with possible candidates for the position, which she will pay in euros, are through mobile phones and WhatsApp. Having lost all experience dealing with Cuba’s slow internet speeds, my friend curses at her phone screen every time she dials and gets the recording that says “the number you are calling is switched off or out of coverage,” one of the many ways the state monopoly Etecsa masks its inefficiency.

The architect, who emigrated, has to finish and deliver a project she was asked to complete on the other side of the Atlantic. Her employers can’t seem to understand that, by boarding that plane to this island, she’s entered a kind of Faraday cage where communication is either unreliable or impossible. Her finished sketches are stuck in Havana, waiting for the longed-for bars of connectivity to appear on her phone. But my friend has lost the capacity to wait. She says that time is worthless here and that every minute that passes is money lost.

I can’t help her much. The Wi-Fi hotspot closest to our house no longer works. After the initial excitement surrounding these wireless parks, the arrival of mobile internet and the lack of maintenance have little by little shut them down. Mobile internet service began in December 2018, and we thought it was time to abandon the hard benches in public squares where the darkness and the threat of muggers forced us to keep one eye on the screen and the other constantly scanning our surroundings.

This Wednesday I visited several of those Wi-Fi hotspots. Some lost their antennas a while ago, and in others, the limited bandwidth has been absorbed by nearby residents who installed antennas that extend the wireless signal into their living rooms, collapsing the service for everyone else. However, the biggest problem now is getting the recharge cards that allow access to the Nauta portal with a username and password.

“Do you have Wi-Fi access cards?” I ask a telecommunications agent who, until recently, made a living selling mobile phone top-ups and other Etecsa services. “No, those haven’t been available for a while now, except that they’re selling them at some main offices,” he tells me. To offset the drop in sales, the man has set up a makeshift stand where he also sells soft drinks, beer, and cookies. If you can’t get online, at least have a drink and something to eat, seems to be the new motto of his tiny business.

At the Etecsa office on Obispo Street, they tell me they’ve run out of Wi-Fi cards. My relative from Vedado isn’t home so I can sit on her sofa and download my emails, so I decide to go back home. On the stairs, I run into my architect friend who is, quite literally, climbing the walls in despair. She hasn’t been able to check her LinkedIn account for over a week.

I go up to the rooftop. I put my phone in a corner and get to work in my little garden. An hour later, I hear a familiar sound. I’ve just received my first WhatsApp message of the day. Faraday, this time, I’ve beaten you.

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Cuba vs. Cuba: The Real Conflict Has Never Been Between Havana and Washington

The Island suffers a civil confrontation of nearly seven decades that today reaches its most tense moment

With Washington, the top leadership of the Communist Party has always been willing to dialogue, talk, “reach understandings.” / Screenshot (Raul Castro) / Cubadebate

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 28 February 2026 — It is obvious that Washington and Havana are antagonists, but the real conflict is not between two countries, but between citizens of the same Island irreconcilably opposed to each other. The recent events in Cayo Falcones, where Ministry of the Interior authorities claim to have engaged in combat with other Cubans from Florida, demonstrate this once again.

Those who hold power in Cuba today came to it through arms. And for decades they have insinuated—when not openly stated—that this is also the only way to remove them. Cubans who dissent are not allowed to publicly express their discontent. Organizing protests is illegal, articulating politically outside the single party is forbidden, and the mere aspiration to participate in free and plural elections belongs to the realm of legal fantasy. All civic avenues are closed off, and then violence is invoked as a pretext.

With Washington, on the other hand, the top leadership of the Communist Party has always been willing to dialogue, talk, “reach understandings.” Against the Cuba that opposes Castroism, the repressive apparatus has been implacable, unleashing a virtual civil war from 1959 to the present. And in 67 years, there has never been a serious attempt at a truce.

Since the Revolution began to radicalize, the new power rushed into the arms of Moscow while its opponents sought the support of Washington. But the White House did not even want to involve its marines in the Bay of Pigs. And after the Missile Crisis, it committed to the USSR not to invade the Island. Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States preferred gradual economic pressure over resorting to military force to finish off the regime. continue reading

No one in the world would lift a finger in favor of the regime if it were too evident that the conflict is really against its own citizens.

The geographical argument, by the way, borders on the picturesque. For decades it has been repeated that the United States does not tolerate “a socialist state 90 miles from its coasts.” But geography is stubborn. The U.S. is closer to Russia than to Cuba. At the narrowest point of the Bering Strait, only 82 kilometers separate Alaska from Chukotka, while between Miami and Havana there are about 150 kilometers. So during the entire Cold War, Washington coexisted with the USSR literally on the other side of the polar fence.

U.S. conduct itself dismantles the thesis of an existential enemy. After the 1996 shoot-down of the Brothers to the Rescue planes—where U.S. citizens died—the response was not to mobilize aircraft carriers, but to tighten the embargo. Even now, everything points to the U.S. strategy continuing to be to pressure for negotiation, not military intervention.

The regime’s official narrative, however, insists that the essence of the problem is the historical dispute with the United States. It sounds epic, cinematic, and—above all—politically profitable, because that discourse attracts international solidarity and allows every internal disaster to be justified. No one in the world would lift a finger for the regime if it were too evident that the conflict is really against its own citizens.

The dictatorship has shown scandalous clumsiness against high-profile external threats—as happened on January 3 in Caracas— in contrast to the notable efficiency it displays when it comes to neutralizing and annihilating other Cubans. The bulk of the apparatus, from the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution to the political police and the army itself, is designed to monitor and discipline its own compatriots. In any serious strategy manual, that is called a structural internal conflict.

The leadership’s response to the largest civilian protests was never to call for national dialogue, but to give the “order to combat.”

In the early years of revolutionary power, the confrontation between Cubans reached levels of open violence. The mass executions of the 1960s set the tone for a policy that turned disagreement into a capital crime. The “Escambray cleanup” was, in essence, an irregular war within its own territory, where thousands of Cubans fought—and died—at the hands of other Cubans.

What is revealing is that, once the armed insurgency was exhausted, the State did not dismantle the logic of war. It simply changed the target. The same rhetoric of “terrorists” and “mercenaries” was recycled to confront peaceful opponents, independent journalists, and human rights activists. And the leadership’s response to the largest civilian protests—the July 11, 2021—was never to call for national dialogue, but to give the “order to combat.”

Currently, the climax of this historical confrontation responds less to Donald Trump’s return to the White House than to the presence of a politician of Cuban origin in a key position in the current Administration: Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

For the regime, Trump is a predictable figure in his tough rhetoric but also in his pragmatic negotiating style. Rubio, on the other hand, embodies the memory of anti-Castroism, the political capital of the diaspora, and above all, the ability to translate the Cuban conflict into the language of U.S. national security without intermediaries.

That is why the real conflict—Cuba versus Cuba—has now reached its most tense moment. And it occurs, moreover, when the Castroist model looks more exhausted than ever, incapable of convincing, of satisfying the basic needs of its population, or of finding an external ally truly committed to its survival. Is it possible to imagine a scenario in which Cubans resolve their differences through civic means? The challenge remains open.

Translated by GH

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NGO Reports the Death of a Political Prisoner and 59 Rights Violations in Cuban Prisons This January

Political prisoners, Afro-descendants, and chronically ill inmates are identified as the main affected groups.

Military personnel guard two inmates in a Havana prison. / EFE/Alejandro Ernesto

EFE (via 14ymedio), February 28, 2026 – The NGO Cuban Prison Documentation Center (CDPD) recorded 59 human rights violations in Cuban prisons and one inmate who died due to medical negligence in January 2026, according to its report for that period released this Friday.

In this update on the situation in Cuban prisons, the Mexico-based NGO reported that at least 31 people deprived of liberty (2 women and 29 men) were identified as affected by some of these violations.

The CDPC also lamented the death of political prisoner Lázaro García Ríos, who was serving a 20-year prison sentence imposed in 2022, accused of the crimes of enemy propaganda and sabotage.

It states that García Ríos underwent heart surgery and, although “medical tests indicated that he had not fully recovered,” he was returned to Combinado del Este prison (Havana). He later filed complaints about the deterioration of his health, “without evidence that timely and adequate medical care was granted by prison authorities.”

The NGO indicated that it documented rights violations in 22 prisons across 14 provinces. Among them, the eastern province of Las Tunas recorded the highest number of complaints (10), mainly in the “El Típico” prison.

It again pointed out that the most affected groups are prisoners held for political reasons, Afro-descendants, and those living with chronic illnesses, clarifying that multiple categories of vulnerability may coincide in a single individual. continue reading

The report emphasized that poor living conditions are a widespread constant.

It also states that international human rights organizations expressed concern over the health situation of political prisoners and urged authorities to grant their “immediate and unconditional release.”

The report stressed that poor living conditions are “a generalized constant,” characterized by “insufficient, poorly prepared, and spoiled food, severe malnutrition, scarcity of drinking water, deteriorated infrastructure, lack of mattresses, insect infestations, and epidemiological outbreaks without proper treatment.”

As punishment for inmates who report these situations, the report states that authorities have restricted or monitored their communications, placed them in solitary confinement, transferred them to other prisons, and denied them medical care. This is compounded by beatings carried out with impunity and threats.

Testimonies are also cited of “sexual violence perpetrated by other inmates with the instigation of prison authorities,” as well as the fabrication of new criminal charges to prevent access to prison benefits and restrictions on family and conjugal visits.

The CDPC stressed that the information included in its report represents “an undercount of the real events and victims.”

Finally, it explained that it is impossible to obtain complete documentation due to “the systematic opacity of the Cuban regime, which refuses to make official information about its prison system transparent, prevents independent observers from accessing prisons, and criminalizes the documentation of human rights violations in these spaces.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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