English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Power cuts and fuel shortages make life more miserable for families every day 14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Mercedes García, Sancti Spiritus, 6 Ocotber 2024 — It is nighttime and – it is almost a truism when it comes to Cuba – there is a blackout. If a family wants to eat early, it is best to … Continue reading “Cubans Take Out Their Charcoal Stoves, Relics of the Special Period”
14ymedio, Madrid, February 12, 2024 — Cuba has fallen thirty places in the Human Development Index (HDI) prepared by the United Nations in just 15 years and is at risk of moving from the group of States at a high level to a medium level, which would mean a severe blow for the Government, which … Continue reading “Poverty in Cuba Surpasses the Worst Moment of the ‘Special Period’”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 27 April 2023 — When the Soviet empire fell, after the toppling of the Berlin Wall by Germans who wanted to live in freedom, the regime in Havana was left a political and ideological orphan. Fidel Castro did not allow his arm to be twisted. Applying measures during the “Special … Continue reading “Cuba: A Return to the Special Period”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 28 April 2023 — Last Wednesday, a 14ymedio reporter sent a photo that he had just captured on Avenida del Puerto, in Havana: a camello [camel] was picking up passengers on a route that took them to La Palma, a neighborhood on the periphery. It was further proof that the … Continue reading “With the Crisis, the ‘Camels’ Return in Cuba, As in the Worst Time of the Special Period”
14ymedio, Madrid, 7 January 2021 — Cuba delivered the national prize for Social and Humanistic Sciences on Thursday to José Luis Rodríguez García, Minister of Economy and Planning during the Special Period and currently a deputy in the parliament. According to the jury, he received the award for “sustained contributions in the field of economic … Continue reading “National Social Sciences Prize Goes to Minister of the Economy During the Special Period”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 12 September 2019 — As announced by the official press in the morning hours of September 11th, a special appearance of the Cuban President (not elected), Miguel Díaz-Canel, took place in the usual space of State televison’s Roundtable program, in order to report on the “current energy situation” that the country … Continue reading “Special Period or “Situation”?”
EFE, via 14ymedio, Havana, 14 April 2019 – Given the renewed pressure from the from United States and the inefficiency of its economy, Cuba established “clear” priorities in a plan looking ahead to 2030 to avoid at all cost falling into a serious crisis like that of the so-called “Special Period” in the decade of … Continue reading “Cuba Establishes Priorities so as Not to Return to the Crisis of the “Special Period””
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernández, Havana, 8 April 2019 — Cuban authorities have given officials instructions to avoid the concept of “Special Period” when addressing citizens, according to 14ymedio sources in state agencies. “They met with the administrative cadres to tell them that very difficult times are coming,” a worker from the Provincial Food Industry Company in … Continue reading “It Is Forbidden To Say "Special Period"”
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernández, Havana, 11 March 2019 — Something is changing in the Cuban mentality toward getting around by bike, but too slowly. The ghost of the Special Period keeps citizens from perceiving the bicycle as a means of transport, an alternative to the bus, healthier and less polluting. And politics has not exactly helped. … Continue reading “The Nightmare of the Special Period Impedes Use of Bikes as Transport”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, March 5, 2019 — The economic crisis Cuba is experiencing will worsen in the next few months and, if it doesn’t open itself to a market system, the country could fall into a new “Special Period,” the grave depression into which the island was sunk in the 90s, according to predictions … Continue reading “The Ghost of The Special Period Threatens Cuba in 2019, Warns Report”
Ivan Garcia, 7 February 2019 — John Bolton, Donald Trump’s National Security advisor, is asking autocrat Nicolas Maduro to renounce power in Miraflores and to enjoy a political retirement on a Caribbean beach. Otherwise, he forecasts a terrorist prison cell for him at the United States’ Guantanamo Naval Base, more than 1000 kilometers east of … Continue reading ““If Maduro Falls, in Cuba We’ll Return to the Special Period” / Ivan Garcia”
Ivan Garcia, 20 December 2018 — Even in the best stage of Fidel Castro’s Revolution there was always something missing. In the 1980s, thanks to the blank check circulating from Moscow, the ration book distributed half a pound of beef per person, drinking a glass of milk was not a luxury and jams, juices and wines and … Continue reading “Will There Be a New ‘Special Period’ in Cuba? / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Mario J. Pentón, Havana, 13 July 2018 — After the robbery of 152,000 dollars (a figure later reduced to 16,000 by the police) Cuban doctors in Venezuela have come to be seen as privileged due to their access to the green bills in contrast to the unfortunate situation of the local population. Several physicians consulted by this newspaper … Continue reading “"I Prefer the Cuba of the Special Period to the Venezuela of Nicolas Maduro," Says a Cuban Doctor”
Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 14 June 2018 — The terminology of officialdom has its euphemisms and its unknowns, among the latter is whether it is politically correct to speak of the ‘Special Period‘ as a thing of the past, an question that became clear in the review published on Tuesday by the state-run newspaper Granma, that discussed Raúl Castro’s … Continue reading “Cuba’s ‘Special Period’: Past, Present and Future”
Cubanet, Orlando Gonzalez, Havana, 20 February 2018 – “I won my bicycle in 1993 for being a ’vanguard’ worker. I’m a Physics teacher and I remember all the requirements that had to be met to be rewarded with one of these. “In those days the only thing that mattered to me was not having absences, … Continue reading “Some 25 Years After the "Special Period" the Bikes Keep Rolling / Orlando Gonzalez”
