English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The victims were sitting in front of their home when part of the structure collapsed on top of them. 14ymedio, Havana, September 20, 2026 – Two people died this Sunday in the partial collapse of a home located at the corner of 8th and San Francisco, in Lawton, a Havana neighborhood in the municipality of … Continue reading “Two People Die When the Entranceway of Their Lawton Home Collapses in Havana”
In Luyanó, another Havana neighborhood, residents collected 70,000 pesos to replace a broken transformer, but in the end it couldn’t be done. In the Lawton neighborhood, in Havana’s Diez de Octubre municipality, residents experienced a power outage lasting all of 137 hours, from August 2nd to 8th. “That’s like five days and a bit more … Continue reading “In Lawton, 137 Hours of Blackout in One Week: “More Than Five Days in the Dark””
The ‘Miami Herald’ poll also indicates that exiles oppose the deportation of law-abiding migrants. 14ymedio, Madrid, April 17, 2026 / Support for a US military intervention in Cuba is even higher today among Cubans who arrived in the US after 2000 (88%) than among those who went into exile between the 1960s and 1970s (80%). … Continue reading “In a Poll, 88% of Cubans Who Arrived in the US After 2000 Were in Favor of a Military Operation Against the Regime”
The initiative has verified more than 1,500 signatures out of the 10,000 required by the Cuban regulation. 14ymedio, Havana, February 4, 2026 — A group of Cuban activists formally delivered a petition to the National Assembly in Havana on Wednesday, calling for an amnesty law to be passed, with the aim of freeing the nearly … Continue reading “Cuban Citizens Submit a Petition to the National Assembly for an Amnesty Law”
He was a tireless promoter of legal education for citizens in the face of repression. 14ymedio, Havana, 8 November 2025 — Independent lawyer and civil rights advocate Wilfredo Vallín Almeida passed away early Saturday morning in Havana at the age of 77, according to sources close to the family who confirmed the information to 14ymedio. … Continue reading “Independent Lawyer Wilfredo Vallín, Founder of the Cuban Legal Association, Dies in Havana”
The lawyer holds Mexican Migration and National Guard agents accountable 14ymedio, Mexico, 21 June 2024 — Cubans, Colombians and Venezuelans who try to reach the United States are charged bribes of 600 to 1,000 dollars at the airports of Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, says lawyer José Luis Pérez Jiménez, who blames the agents of the … Continue reading “A Lawyer Denounces the Extortion of Cubans at Two Airports in Mexico / 14yMedio”
14ymedio, Havana, August 2, 2023 — Far from freeing the economy and easing state restrictions on private individuals from, the government insists on enacting laws that further control the Cuban economy. This Tuesday the Official Gazette published a decree of the Council of Ministers that regulates industrial design and visual communication in Cuba. The law, which provides … Continue reading “New Design Law Prohibits Using Cuban Symbols Without Authorization From a State ‘Advisor’”
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 15 March 2023 – In the film The Lives of Others, the writer Georg Dreyman encapsulates his break with the regime in a report about suicides in communist countries. He writes it in red ink on a secret typewriter and under the vigilance of secret agent Wiesler, alias HGW XX/7. When … Continue reading “The Havana Law: The Authentic Face of the Cuban Tourist Paradise”
14ymedio, Havana, December 15, 2022 — The indifference of some National Assembly delegates made it impossible to know if they approved, were abstaining or simply were not interested in the proposed expropriation law. When called upon by Esteban Lazo to to cast their votes for the legislation, some members kept their hands under the table while … Continue reading “Cuban Parliament Shows Little Enthusiasm for Expropriation Law”
14medio, Madrid, Spain, December 12, 2022 — On Sunday, Cuba’s Public Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda presented a draft of a Law of Public Health in which, along with other big news, the right to euthanasia is authorized. The text still is not known, but according to the official press, it proposes recognition of … Continue reading “Cuban Government Prepares the Approval of Euthanasia in its New Health Law”
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, 13 December 2022 — On Monday the Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power agreed to put back the debate and final approval of the controversial Social Communication Law, an action which postpones for now the idea of illegality of non-state media. The Parliament’s president Esteban Lazo explained that the Council of State requested … Continue reading “Cuban Parliament Considers Law to Prohibit Non-State Digital Media”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 14 December 2022 — On Tuesday, a group of 500 citizens from opposition organizations requested that Cuba’s National Assembly of the People’s Power approve a law guaranteeing the rights to protest and to assemble, which are included in the 2019 Constitution. Representatives of the Council for a Democratic Transition in Cuba, … Continue reading “Cuban Opponents Petition Parliament to Pass a Law on the Right to Protest”
14ymedio, Havana, 12 December 2022 — Without knowing exactly why, satisfaction reigned in the parliamentary agro-food commission for the announced Law on the Promotion and Development of Livestock, which in recent days has been the focus of several reports in the local press. The preliminary draft, without any real innovations, can influence the pressing problem of … Continue reading “The Proposed Law on Livestock is Typical for a Meat-Producing Country, Not for Cuba”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 12 December 2022 — In February 1970, while doing my work as a journalist (still a student) to cover the sugar harvest in the municipality of Florida, I attended an important meeting chaired by Armando Hart Dávalos, the member of the Political Bureau assigned to guarantee the goal corresponding to the … Continue reading “The Ordering Task* and the Law of Gravity”
Dimas Castellanos, 1 July 2021 — To improve the image of Cuban laws — outdated with respect to the international legal system — the Supreme People’s Court (TSP) submitted four preliminary drafts to the National Assembly of People’s Power for approval: Law on the Courts of Justice, Code of Proceedings, Law on Administrative Procedure and … Continue reading “Cuba’s New Laws, a Strategy for the Debacle / Dimas Castellano”