English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
“It’s still cheaper to buy a 6GB package on the street for 1,000 or 1,500 pesos, not this 2GB scam for 1,200 pesos.” 14ymedio, Havana, 19 June 2025 — The new data plans for web browsing of the Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa), announced on Thursday — after three weeks of student protests over the price … Continue reading “Etecsa Manages To Intensify the Indignation of Cubans With Two New Internet Plans”
There will be mini refills of 360 pesos for 30 days and others that cost up to 11,760 CUP. 14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, 30 May 2025 — Friday started badly for customers of Etecsa, Cuba’s state telecommunications monopoly. Etecsa has implemented, beginning May 30, new commercial measures that limit the refills of minutes in Cuban … Continue reading “Cuba’s State Communications Company Etecsa Restricts Phone Refills in Pesos To Disguise the Dollarization of Its Services”
The state communications monopoly has millions of pesos in cash but needs foreign currency to modernize 14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 14 January 2025 — The Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa) is trapped in a paradox. While it lacks foreign currency to invest in its deteriorated infrastructure, the monopoly has been fined for not using its … Continue reading “Etecsa Will Start Charging for Some Services in Dollars Inside Cuba”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 17 October 2022 — With its blue logo, air-conditioned offices and no competition in the national market, the Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa) is experiencing a paradoxical situation: it is one of the few national entities that generates a large income, and, even so, it is in a difficult financial situation. … Continue reading “Despite its Enormous Benefits, Etecsa Runs Out of Resources”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 14 November 2023 – Along with all their other routine problems, Cubans suffered major difficulties in connecting to the internet on Tuesday, owing to a “break in an underground fibre optic cable”, according to a brief announcement by the Cuban Telecoms Company, Etecsa. The breakdown “has had an effect on … Continue reading “A Fibre Optic Cable Breakage Worsens Cuba’s Internet Connection”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya and Miguel García, Havana/Holguín, 25 October 2023 — It’s 11:00 AM and the only people to be seen in the park at the corner of Infanta and San Lázaro streets in central Havana are couple of people sitting on a bench and a man with his dog. The scene was very … Continue reading “With Mobile Phone Internet and Fear of Being Robbed, Cubans Abandon Open-Air Wifi”
14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, September 7, 2023 — It started off as a minor cough that later turned thunderous. Ibrahím was not moving. His family shook him several times but a bluish color spread across his face. This summer, at the age of 67, the bricklayer died. It had been just a month since … Continue reading “More than Twenty Former Cuban Employees of U.S. Embassy Apply to Emigrate”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 18 August 2023 — She has her suitcase packed; every afternoon she practices a little English and counts the days until she can leave. Nidia organizes her departure with total discretion. In the Ministry of Transport in Havana where she works, no one knows that she is registered in the … Continue reading “Boss, Give Me the Leave, I’m Going to the United States Tomorrow With the ‘Parole’”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 17 January 2023 — The looks of those that wait go from the mobile phone screen to the avenue. After a while, a bus stops at Porvenir Street, in Havana, although it hadn’t previously been seen on the mobile phone app ’MovilWeb Urbanos’. Between vehicles that disappear from the map … Continue reading “Cuba: ‘What Use is an App to Track Buses if There are No Buses’”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 14 December 2021 — It is not enough to wait for hours at the bus stop, make the trip packed in like a can of sardines, but the passengers on Havana’s buses must also take maximum care of their purses, pockets and especially their mobile phones, which have become one … Continue reading “Buses, Cuba’s Cellphone Thieves Favorite Places”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 16 August 2021– “There is fuel for the patrol cars, but not for public transport,” a woman shouted indignantly. Like like dozens of other Havanans, she was waiting for a bus at the Ayestarán and 19 de Mayo under the suffocating August sun. The capital woke up with serious problems … Continue reading “Dozens of Police Patrols Roam Havana but the Buses Don’t Appear”