“It is absolutely reprehensible how agents of the murderous Castro regime have manipulated our immigration laws to infiltrate our country,” said Republican Carlos Giménez
Tomás Emilio Hernández Cruz, the former Cuban agent arrested on Wednesday by the US authorities /ICE
14ymedio/EFE, Madrid/Miami, 20 March 2025 — Carlos Giménez, a Republican congressman of Cuban origin, asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to immediately investigate and deport more than 100 people who reside in the United States and have alleged links to the Castro regime.
In a letter sent to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the Republican said that these individuals represent “a threat to national security.”
Giménez provided a list with more than 100 names of people he considers “previously supported the brutal policies of the Castro dictatorship and have taken advantage of US immigration laws to enter our country,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
These agents of the Cuban regime must be identified, investigated and deported immediately, stressed the congressman, born in Cuba and one of the most recognized faces against the Castro regime in southern Florida in continue reading
recent years, as mayor of Miami-Dade County between 2011 and 2020.
“It is absolutely reprehensible how agents of the murderous Castro regime have manipulated our immigration laws to infiltrate our country,” he said.
Giménez said that he will continue to work closely with the DHS to identify agents of regimes from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua
Giménez, who represents a district with a large Cuban and Hispanic population in South Florida, highlighted the arrest of Tomás Emilio Hernández Cruz by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 14. He was identified as a “member of Cuban intelligence in several high-level positions abroad,” after an investigation carried out based on inconsistencies detected in his immigration application.
Giménez said he will continue to work closely with the DHS to identify agents of regimes from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The recent measures of the US Government to restrict the arrival of foreigners, and especially the draft that the New York Times made public six days ago – where Cuba appears on a “red list” of countries whose citizens cannot enter the United States – has concerned Cubans, even those who already reside in the country legally.
The fear is that, if it becomes an executive order, the measure will prevent Cubans with a residence permit from returning to US soil if they travel outside the country. The draft doesn’t mention this, however, and specialists are trying to calm the community.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The Diocesan Archive of Ourense reveals that due to the existence of this black market, they have been forced to ensure that documents bear the signature of the vicar.
A line of Cubans in front of the Spanish embassy in Havana / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Madrid, 21 March 2025 –“There are more and more people from Ourense on the streets of Havana or on Ribadavia Avenue in Buenos Aires. They are Ourensanos who don’t know Ourense, who have never stepped foot on the Couto or Marcelo Macías.” This is how the program En Portada, on the local channel of Ourense, Telemiño, began this Thursday. It revealed that there is a black market in Cuba for false birth certificates to prove Spanish origin and request nationality in accordance with the Democratic Memory Law. The price reaches 2,000 or 3,000 euros for a document whose real version costs 10,000 euros.
Pablo Cid, in charge of the Diocesan Historical Archive, said that every day they receive 30 to 50 emails requesting information about birth, marriage or death certificates of those interested in finding out if they have an ancestor from Ourense. “On weekends the number goes down a little, but from one day to the next we still leave with our inbox empty, and the next day we arrive and there are 40 emails, mainly from Cuba, Argentina and some from Mexico. Well, there are many from Miami, but because of the issue of Cuba,” he says.
In 2024, 500 new Ourensanos registered in the census of Spaniards abroad thanks to the nationalization obtained through this law. In addition, the archive resolved 20,000 requests for information. It can be assumed that more Galician citizens will emerge thanks to the Democratic Memory Law, whose application period began in 2022 and closes in October of this year.
In 2024, 500 new Ourense citizens registered in the census of Spaniards abroad thanks to the nationalization obtained through this law
According to data from the Centro de Descendientes de Españoles Unidos, more than 200,000 people have already received the passport, to which must be added more than a million people, including the 300,000 Cubans continue reading
involved in the process. But Pablo Cid left a disconcerting fact in his speech yesterday: Cuba is the only country in which the black market of certificates has such a considerable volume that it has reached the ears of the Historical Archive, which has been asked to take extraordinary measures.
“For any country in the world, documents sent bearing the stamp of the Archive and the signature of the director are enough for them to be valid. But since one month ago, birth certificates coming from Cuba are required to carry the signature of the vicar. At first we didn’t know why, but then we discovered that they were falsifying the documents,” Cid revealed. “There was a massive influx of forged certificates, and they decided to make it more difficult. Someone told me that any Cuban can buy a false one for 2,000 or 3,000 euros.”
The archivist commented that the queries that arrive at the archive are very diverse and refer to ancestors who allegedly left Galicia at the end of the 19th century, for whom it is impossible to find anything. Or they ask about people known only by name, and finding something is statistically impossible or the results ambiguous. Most attempts come, of course, from countries “with problems.”
Among them, he says, are Venezuela and, of course, the Island. “Cuba is one of those that is always in the ranking, because the economic and political situation encourages the population to leave.” Those invited to the program, including an economist and a journalist, addressed an issue that was”unthinkable” for them 10 or 20 years ago: the increase in population in a province that has been depopulated for decades.
Ourense, the only one of the four Galician provinces without sea access, is the least populated and the one with the lowest per capita income, so the participants on En Portada considered it very positive that the population would increase and contribute to the maintenance of the State. In addition, they defended the right of immigrants to be welcomed as Spaniards were when they emigrated.
“I am one of those who think that we have emigrated to other countries for years, if not decades and centuries. Now we find that in those countries, which used to work better than Spain, there are problems. And I think it is fair to return to the groups that are there and that have an interest in moving to our country the same opportunity that they gave us at the time,” said economist and professor José Ángel Vázquez Barquero.
“And I think it is fair to return to the groups that are there and that have an interest in moving to our country the same opportunity that they gave us at the time”
Pablo Cid, who spoke at length about the complexity of some inquiries, was also asked about the worst things he has seen in this work, among which, scams aside, he spoke of the discomfort generated by the fact that there are companies and lawyers “taking advantage of the situation to make money” even if it is legal. The archivist, who says that the process of obtaining a document costs 10 euros, said that among the workers of the institution there is an internal joke about “adding a zero” when the request comes from this type of company, charging 200 or 300 euros for the procedure. “We do the work, but the money goes somewhere else,” he smiles.
The broadcast gave half an hour to discussing the programs of the Xunta de Galicia to attract emigrants and the job possibilities that exist in the province of Ourense and the region. But many of those new Spaniards may never leave for Spain but may find another value in their passport, such as a mobility that a Cuban passport will never give them.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A coffee grower from Sancti Spíritus lost everything by selling the beans on his own, without going through the State agency Acopio
In Sancti Spíritus, the price of unroasted Criollo coffee is between 200 and 240 pesos. / Escambray
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 20 March 2025 — The story of Isidro, a guajiro — as he will be known to protect his identity—is spreading in Sancti Spíritus, after authorities confiscated 465 sacks of coffee he was saving to sell. In his eyes, he has done nothing wrong, but in Cuba, what he did is illegal.
The farmer decided one day to invest in his business and expand it beyond the coffee plantations he cultivated himself. So, he sold his motorcycle to use the money to buy beans from other producers. “This is now a small business that’s making money, because of the price of coffee,” a resident who also requested anonymity told 14ymedio. In the province, the price of the native product is between 200 and 240 pesos, unroasted (250-gram bags, already roasted and ground, cost between 1,350 and 1,500 pesos).
“The man was crazy. They had to bring him to Sancti Spíritus because he said he wanted to kill himself. He lost his money, his motorcycle, everything.”
The police, who accused him of “hoarding” and prohibited him from selling the coffee to any buyer other than the State agency Acopio, gave the confiscated product to the Cabaiguán roasting plant.
He usually goes to the fields to buy coffee from the producers, but now he has stopped this activity, “until the dust settles.”
The line for breaking the law is thin, the resident continues. He usually goes to the fields to buy coffee directly from the producers, to resell it in the city, but he’s stopped doing so now, “until the dust settles.” He adds: “If the police catch you with a backpack of coffee, even a small one, they’ll take it away.” continue reading
At the beginning of last September, the government issued a new resolution on the marketing of agricultural, forestry, and tobacco production that, de facto, penalized private farmers with more controls—reserving the monopoly on purchasing from these farmers, the campesinos, and setting prices for products destined for export, including coffee, despite their far more successful production than the state sector.
For example, private farmers produce more than 80% of fruit trees, almost 80% of beans, and three-quarters of vegetables, root vegetables, and corn, according to official data presented by economist Pedro Monreal, who harshly criticized the new regulation. As he posted on social media at the time, he believes the resolution “expresses the arrogant notion that centralized planning is more effective than the market in ensuring ‘economic calculation’ (rational distribution of resources).” Furthermore, he observed, it represented a “variant of ‘forced’ contracting,” like the one imposed on the guajiro Isidro.
The harshness of the raids has not increased the presence of coffee in the island’s bodegas (ration stores). Just a week ago, the official press argued that the disappearance of the product and the collapse of its production was due, above all, to the lack of workers to harvest the fruit.
In that unusual note, published by the official newspaper Granma, they didn’t hide the sector’s collapse. “In 2023, the situation with the coffee was tense, and resources for harvesting and transport were insufficient,” Felipe Martínez Suárez, director of the Agroforestry Experimental Station in the municipality of Tercer Frente, in Santiago de Cuba, told the Communist Party newspaper. He nevertheless emphasized that the company was able to develop “more resilient” plants thanks to aid from Vietnam.
According to the National Statistics and Information Office, production in the sector fell by 51% in the last five years.
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“They don’t eat breakfast, they don’t eat lunch, they don’t eat anything, they just stuff themselves with that, it doesn’t lead to anything good.”
With some effort, a young man is picked up in Fraternity Park in Havana / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 19 March 2025 — A prisoner to his convulsions, a young man tosses on the ground, amid guttural screams, while he hits himself with fury. He has a scratched face and sores on his hands. “Watch him, that’s the químico [chemical],” the witnesses exclaim, recognizing a scene that is no longer exceptional in Cuba. So much so that it does not happen only in marginal territories, but also in the heart of cities. In this case, in Havana’s Fraternity Park, a step away from the Capitol, in the middle of this Wednesday morning.
“I know that boy, he’s twenty-years-old. He spends the day there sitting on a bench with a small group, asking people for money,” the worker of a nearby place tells this newspaper. “They don’t have breakfast, they don’t eat, they don’t feed themselves, they just get into that, which doesn’t lead to anything good.”
Another neighbor aware of the situation corroborates that the young man is a regular consumer of synthetic cannabinoids, known on the Island as “el quimico” – the chemical. “He takes it up to nine times a day,” he says, but they had never seen him like that. “It does give him fits, but not as strong. And it’s scary, because you can see that he could do anything under the effects.” continue reading
The police try to dissuade him from approaching the boy and threaten to put those who take out their cell phones to take photos into the patrol car
Faced with a crowd of people, the police try to dissuade people from approaching the boy and threaten to put those who take out their cell phones to take photos into a patrol car. Minutes later, not without effort, between an agent, a guard and two other men, they manage to carry the still trembling body to a private red Lada to take him to a hospital, whose name they don’t give.
The event coincides with the most recent crusade of the Cuban Government against narcotics, the “Third Exercise of Prevention and Confrontation of Illicit Drugs,” which began on Sunday the 16th and will end on Saturday the 22nd. The objective, the official press said, is “to reach the neighborhood with preventive and confrontational actions, to work on community factors, to raise the perception of risk and the rejection of drugs, and to achieve greater participation of the family in the education and protection of their children.”
Among the actions that the authorities say they will develop are establishing controls on the roads, making “prophylactic preventive interventions in 57 educational centers,” carrying out “checks on the production and storage systems of medicines and other substances,” holding debates and talks, but also, according to the official State newspaper Granma, executing show trials.
This same Wednesday, Canal Caribe reported that such a trial took place in Havana for “alleged crimes associated with illicit drugs,” although it does not specify when or how many were prosecuted. In the same report, Xiang Fong Zamora, president of the First Criminal Chamber of the Provincial Court, recalled that in 2024, “more than 92%” of defendants tried for acts related to drug trafficking were sentenced to prison.
The media reports that a trial took place in Havana for “alleged crimes associated with illicit drugs,” although it does not specify when or the number of defendants
The figure was given by the Ministry of the Interior itself: more than 1,100 people went to jail last year for that reason. Likewise, in 2024, 1,051 kilos of drugs were seized in Cuba, mostly cocaine, in addition to marijuana, methamphetamine and cannabinoids. Most were detected on the sea. There alone, the police seized 844.13 kilos (619.72 of cocaine, 222 of marijuana and 2.3 of hashish) in 133 actions. There were also nine stings in which 37.5 kilos of drugs were seized.
In Holguín, the “Exercise” seems to focus more on prevention. As Iris Cosella Torres, a provincial Mental Health official, said this Tuesday to the newspaper Ahora!, “they will arrive in the neighborhoods, fundamentally, to promote protection factors and in this way contribute to achieving greater participation of the family in the education and guarding of their children against drugs.”
In her speech, the official recalled, without referring to him by name or surname, that “the Historical Leader of the Revolution prioritized the fight against drugs, for which he instituted almost at the end of 1958 Provision No. 6 of the Civil Administration of the free territory, which provided for the total elimination of the consumption of any substance that was against the well-being of the people.”
This is one of the many fallacies spread by Fidel Castro, especially lacerating given the involvement of high authorities of the regime in the international trafficking of narcotics, and the outcome of Case 1/89, which ended in the execution of General Arnaldo Ochoa and three other high military officials, on July 13, 1989.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The International Republican Institute was able to retain only five of its 95 programs funded by the State Department and USAID.
Archive photograph of former USAID employees and supporters in Washington, D.C. / EFE/EPA/Shawn Thew
14ymedio, Havana, 19 March 2025 — The United States Department of State restored part of the financing that it had frozen weeks ago for independent Cuban media and non-governmental organizations, according to the Nuevo Herald on Wednesday, after confirmation with several sources related to the issue.
The newspaper CubaNet, dean of the independent press, was notified that a subsidy that financed its operations was no longer canceled, according to Roberto Hechavarría, director of the digital media which was founded in 1994, speaking to the American newspaper.
Likewise, the legal organization Cubalex and the NGO Outreach AID to the Americas were also informed by the State Department that a program related to part of its financing, previously canceled, had been newly approved.
Both institutions linked to Cuba, however, have had to reduce their teams and will not have all the budget that was approved before the current Administration suspended all aid distributed through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). continue reading
Sources related to the federal decision confirmed to the Nuevo Herald that the International Republican Institute was able to retain only five of its 95 programs funded by the State Department and USAID. These are all projects related to Cuba and Venezuela, including one that supports political prisoners on the island. They also indicated that the Democratic National Institute could only retain a couple of contracts related to Venezuela.
For his part, José Jasán Nieves, director of El Toque, said that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an independent organization that receives funding from the US Congress, notified them of the disbursement of funds already committed, “but they still aren’t talking about reactivating the suspended programs.” The federal government released part of the previously frozen money after a lawsuit by the Foundation against the State Department.
Last year alone, according to the report prepared by tycoon Elon Musk at the request of President Donald Trump after the shutdown of USAID, the expenditure to “rebuild the Cuban media ecosystem” was one and a half million dollars. It is an infinitesimal part of the agency’s total budget of about 60 billion dollars annually, but it represents a substantial part of the spending of several independent media, which try to compensate for the propaganda of the Cuban regime with plural information.
In addition, dozens of Cuban organizations working for human rights, free enterprise and freedom of expression were benefiting from these funds.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated last February that some USAID programs will be exempted from the freeze on funds. “Every dollar we spend, every program we finance must be aligned with the national interest of the United States, and USAID has a history of ignoring that and deciding that, somehow, they are a global charity separate from the national interest,” he said.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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For 40 years, the elimination of the station was one of the most constant demands of the Cuban dictatorship, comparable only to the return of the Guantanamo naval base or the end of the embargo.
For years I was a regular contributor to ’The News As It Stands’ on Radio Martí, where you could hear reports from ’14ymedio’, ’Diario de Cuba’ and ’Cubanet’ / Radio Martí
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aquí, 18 March 2025 – I don’t know whether the USA will now be more “grande” (’great again’) after closing down Radio Martí. Neither do I know whether, in the English spoken by the president of that country, the word “grande” (’great’) is limited to the amount of money that that country stashes away in its vaults. In the Spanish that we speak in Cuba the word “grande” is associated with “grandeza” – magnanimity, or nobility – and this word in turn is associated with generosity.
Generosity cannot be demanded, but it is one’s duty to give thanks for it.
For 40 years, the elimination of Radio Martí was one of the most consistent demands made by the Cuban regime, comparable only to their demands for the return of the Guantánamo naval base and the end of the embargo. To use an expression familiar to the Republican who, for now, occupies the White House, the Cuban negotiators never even had “the cards” to put on the table for achieving their goal of switching off Radio Martí.
I’m not familiar with the rules of Poker, nor of any other card game, but if I were to get all ’conspiracy theory’ about it I would dare to suspect that the game’s being played underneath the table. ’Certainly’ it’s a coincidence that the closure of Radio Martí came just after we’d heard about the release of 553 prisoners! – which had been promised to the Vatican (of which only 230 were considered to be political prisoners), and shortly after it was announced that foreigners could now buy and own land in Cuba. And who knows, perhaps at last we may be about to find out exactly why so many hotels have been built on the island recently. continue reading
In the Spanish that we speak in Cuba the word “grande” is associated with “grandeza” – magnanimity, or nobility – and this word in turn is associated with generosity
There’s no use crying over spilt milk. For years I was a regular contributor to ’The News As It Stands’ on Radio Martí, where you could hear reports by independent media organisations such as ’14ymedio’, ’Diario de Cuba’ and ’Cubanet’, to name but a few. There, any Cubans without internet access were able to find out what these digital media had been publishing. Granted, it was accompanied by noise and interference, but it had a clarity which only the truth can provide.
Perhaps it’s now just become our turn for giving “grandeza”/generosity towards the United States – to help it become “great again,” via yet more money in its vaults, in exchange for losing those spaces for truthful information about our reality. But as I’ve already said: generosity cannot be demanded, but it is one’s duty to give thanks for it.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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An article in ‘Granma’ describes the bleak outlook for the sugar harvest in Guantánamo province.
Argeo Martínez is the only sugar mill in the east of the country that joined the campaign this year / Prensa Guantánamo
14ymedio, Havana, 18 March 2025 — The International Agroindustrial Food Fair of Cuba began this Monday in Havana, at a time when national agriculture is experiencing a deep crisis and desperately needs foreign investors to revive production. Proof of this is an unusual article by the State newspaper Granma that describes the bleak panorama of the harvest in the eastern provinces and bears a title that says it all: With such ingenuity and effort, where’s the harvest?
In the eastern zone, the Argeo Martínez sugar mill is the only one that has assumed the grinding (there are only 14 throughout the country this year), but its entry into the campaign was late, and after the appearance of other “inconveniences,” the delays have accumulated. From the beginning, the mill was far from reaching the 26,000 tonnes of sugar it achieved in 2014. For this year, the plan is one fourth as much, and with a deadline of March 25, they already owe 700 tonnes.
This translates into thousands of tonnes of cane not being processed, according to the mill’s administrator, due to rain and other obstacles.
The raw material “reached the conveyor belt with a delay of up to 90 hours and was often burned”
According to Granma, the raw material “reached the mill with a delay of up to 90 hours and was often burned,” which the person in charge of the harvest in Guantánamo – where the mill is located – justifies with the poor state of the fields: “In some seedlings there is pica pica,” a plant that stings the skin of the cane cutters and which it is better not to approach,” says the continue reading
newspaper.
Other plants have also invaded the oldest plantations, neglected for two and a half years. Cutting them down, the article argues, would demand too much effort on the part of the macheteros, so it is decided to burn the field,* and only the blackened cane remains standing. “The scientific literature states that the burning of cane fields affects biodiversity and the ecosystem, reduces the natural fertility of soils and reduces the quality of the raw material,” the media emphasizes.
The same was alleged by Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca in his visit to Argeo Martínez last week, when he asked for “more discipline” on the part of the employees: “What kind of harvest can be obtained from a burnt cane that arrives late to the conveyor belt?” he scolded.
The director also “saw railroad cars waiting too long to be unloaded, and he knew – from the record – that there was cane in the field waiting to be transported, a sign of discontinuity in the flow of raw material to the mill,” says the media.
To this are added the failures, unforeseen stops, problems in the boilers, “disorders here and there in the 162-year-old ’rheumatic’ colossus”
Granma also highlights “other causes and bad luck” that delay the transport to the mill. “The humidity on the ground has risen, and many times, because of it, the cutting and lifting slow down. The mud makes it difficult and sometimes prevents the cane from arriving on time, which takes away its freshness,” emphasizes the administrator of Argeo Martínez
Added to this are failures, unforeseen shutdowns, boiler problems, “disorders here and there in the 162-year-old ’rheumatic’ colossus” whose ailments can no longer be corrected with temporary patches.
However, some workers take responsibility for the failure with voluntarism and promise a better future for the harvest. The administrator believes that the next plantings “will give more sugar.” Until now, the yield was 5.79 tonnes of sugar for every hundred tonnes of ground cane, but “in recent days that index exceeds 6.50,” which managers see as a “good symptom.” And they assure: “we will get to eight.”
“At first glance it seems impossible,” predicts Granma, which attributes to the mill a “gypsy curse disguised as interruptions and inefficiencies, which has haunted them year after year for more than a decade.” If it is achieved, it is thanks to the “efforts of the operators and the workers.” And it clarifies: “The good, the bad and the regular of the current sugar campaign in the Upper East depends on this sugar mill, the only one working in Guantánamo.”
For years, each sugar campaign has been worse than the previous one, and, in 2024, the Island reached its lowest point. Barely 160,000 tonnes were produced, less than half of what was achieved a year earlier, when 350,000 were reached. Last year, Cuba also imported more sugar than it produced for the first time.
Sugar is just one product of those presented – all in a similar state – by Cuban agriculture to companies in Spain, Italy, Panama, Chile and Brazil, and to the 46 firms from 20 countries visiting the Agroindustrial Fair. Currently, according to official data, the country imports 80% of the food it consumes, including 100% of the products in the basic family basket.
*Translator’s note: Burning the cane field eliminates the grass and makes it easier to cut at the base of the plant.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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A power deficit of 1,300 MW is forecast for today as more tankers carrying oil and fuel continue to arrive.
The Luyanó neighborhood has been without water for more than a week / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 18 March 2025 — After the collapse last Friday of the national electricity system (SEN), electricity is not the only thing missing for Cubans. In Havana, the image of elderly people carrying buckets or pushing wheelbarrows with water containers has become frequent. In some neighborhoods, the supply cycle was interrupted by the total blackout, and, since then, “not even one drop of water” has reached homes.
This is the case of Luyanó, in the municipality of Diez de Octubre, where the neighbors who talked to 14ymedio assure that they have been “more than a week”, since Monday, March 10, without water. Normally, they say, the service works every other day. The options to overcome the shortage range from appealing to the kindness of neighbors with wells to going to relatives with reservations to be able to bathe or cook.
In Nuevo Vedado, where the editorial staff of this newspaper is located, the situation is similar. “I only have a small reserve left, and I hope that this afternoon there is enough water in the building’s cistern to be able to pump it into a container,” says a resident in the area. continue reading
“I had to go to the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital on Monday. and there were nurses complaining that they had not been able to wash their uniforms”
I had to go to the Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital on Monday, and there were nurses complaining that they had not been able to wash their uniforms because they still had no power in their homes,” adds the neighbor, worried about the hygiene of the employees who are exposed to diseases and infections. In the center, despite now having electricity, “the servers were down and there was no network,” she adds.
According to an article published yesterday in the State newspaper Granma, the “greatest complexity” with the water supply is in the capital. Interviewed by the official media, José Antonio Hernández Álvarez, director of Water and Sanitation in the province, explained that water service would not be available until “the afternoon-night of Wednesday” if the supply is restored.
“The stability in the pumping systems begins about 72 hours after being energized, in this case after the reconnection of the national electrical system, which collapsed last Friday,” Granma added.
The weekend of total blackouts has reminded many of the obstacles they faced at the end of the year, when the SEN suffered three power outages in three months. In Holguín, on the other side of the island, Manuel still laments that most of the food he had refrigerated ended up in the trash. “We had to bring food to my wife’s grandmother, who lives in the countryside about five kilometers from the city, because everything went bad,” he says.
He explains that this week everything has returned to the usual “normality,” at least in Havana. “The blackouts are now scheduled and will happen as before. But in the countryside it takes two hours and more to turn on the power, taking the programming schedule as a reference,” he says.
The image of elderly people carrying buckets or pushing wheelbarrows with water containers has become frequent in Havana / 14ymedio
As of this Monday, and despite the fact that many Cubans continue to suffer the consequences of the total blackout of the weekend, the Electric Union began again to broadcast its usual report. For this Tuesday, the deficit is forecast at 1,300 megawatts, a number that has become standard in recent months and that represents almost half of the Island’s demand.
The situation is barely alleviated by the tankers that arrive on the Island and take time to distribute the tons of oil they bring. “It took the Corossol about 120 days to unload its precious cargo of urgently needed fuel,” Texas University expert Jorge Piñón told this newspaper about the ship loaded with 650,000 barrels of diesel that had been circulating around the Island since November before docking at the port of Matanzas on March 3.
The same is repeated, says the specialist, with the Marlin Aventurine, which has been waiting to unload in the operational part of the Matanzas Supertanker Base since March 5. On the horizon, with an expected arrival in Matanzas on April 1, he explains, there is another ship approaching, the Marlin Ammolite, with an estimated 330,000 barrels of fuel from France. “Does Cuba have a problem in the storage capacity in its logistics chain or a financial problem?” asks Piñón, who emphasizes that these three tankers “do not come from Mexico, Russia or Venezuela, where there would not be any kind of delay for payment reasons.”
They are all, for the moment, questions: “Is it Cuba who is paying in cash for the fuel in these three tankers? Or is it a third party, Russia or Venezuela, that is the counterparty through a credit to the supplier?” Not counting the freight, the expert estimates these three tankers carry fuel worth 85 million dollars.
Meanwhile, unit 6 of the Renté thermoelectric plant, in Santiago de Cuba; the 2 of Felton, in Holguín; the 6 of Mariel, in “maintenance in Artemisa; as well as the 3 of Santa Cruz del Norte, in Mayabeque; the 3 and 4 of Cienfuegos, and the 5 of Renté are out of the game.
Another 435 megawatts are not available in thermal generation, he says without offering explanations. And, finally, 42 distributed generation plants are not working due to lack of fuel, affecting another 176 megawatts.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Visitors fall by 33% and 49% respectively, while European arrivals fall to historic lows.
Foreign tourists in Old Havana. / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Havana, 18 March 2025 — The number of Canadian tourists visiting Cuba has plummeted by 33% in the first two months of the year compared to the same period in 2024. A year ago, Cuba received 261,009 travelers from Canada between January and February, compared to 176,611 in 2025, a significant drop of 87,398 visitors, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Tourism published by economist Pedro Monreal this Tuesday.
“The end of the 2024-2025 high tourist season in Cuba looks bleak. Preliminary data indicate a decline in visitors from the four main markets in January-February 2025: Canada, the Cuban community abroad, the US, and Russia,” the expert notes.
According to this data, the Cuban community has dropped from 45,999 to 38,757, a 15.7% decrease; while in the case of Americans, the reduction is smaller, 10.9%, falling from 28,289 to 25,197. The most worrying case, however, is that of Russia. The ally called upon to save the sinking Cuban tourism industry has struck out like no other, posting a 49% drop, from 43,859 in 2024 to 22,306 this year.
The European quartet also continues to decline, with Germany’s decline being the most moderate
The figures released by the ministry do not reflect the total number of tourists who have arrived on the island in the past two months. We will have to wait for the publication of the monthly report from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), but there are some other revealing data.
The decrease in cumulative travelers in January and February 2025 compared to the same period of the previous year leaves some more or less expected declines. One of these is Argentina, which had a positive balance in 2024 but suffered a poor performance that has been consolidated in these first two months, when there were 7.4% fewer visitors.
The European quartet also continues to decline, with Germany experiencing the most moderate decline, at -14.7%, followed by France, at -22%. Spain and Italy are close behind, at -25.21% and -25.82%, respectively, although Spain’s case is the most alarming, due to the cultural and economic ties that exist between the two countries. According to Cuban authorities, the reason lies in the penalty imposed by the US, which requires Europeans who have visited Cuba to apply for visas to travel to its territory, instead of being able to benefit from the ESTA visa waiver program.
Confirmation of this seemingly endless decline comes two days after the close of the Lisbon Tourism Exchange, a trade fair held until last Sunday in the Portuguese capital, where Cuba attempted to sell its benefits as a tourist destination to the country’s public.
Prensa Latina published a note this Monday praising the “successful participation” of the Cuban delegation in Lisbon
The official Prensa Latina news agency published a note this Monday praising the “successful participation” of the Cuban delegation at the event, where an attempt was made to promote direct air connections, dispensing with the Madrid connection—a highly unlikely aspiration, since travelers from Portugal (which has a population of 10.5 million) never appear in national tourism reports, being relegated to the “others” catch-all category.
“The high season ends in March, and we’ll have to wait until October for the start of the 2025-2026 high season. The February data and the announcement of March figures are pending confirmation, but 2025 could be another bad year for tourism in Cuba,” Monreal concludes.
The Cuban government, after years of setbacks, has set a meager tourist target for 2025: just 2.6 million, compared to the 2.7 million achieved in 2024. The initial peak season figures are raising alarm bells, as this target could be far from being achieved.
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The former world boxing champion says the blackout on the island happens all the time, but in Havana they are a little more careful.
The former world boxing champion Yordenis Ugás //Facebook/Yordenis Ugás
14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 17 March 2025 — “Cuba is like a horror movie in real time.” That’s how former world boxing champion Yordenis Ugás defined the island’s blackout that has lasted more than three days. The boxer, now exiled in the United States, shared a photo of the Cuban capital in darkness on his Facebook account this Sunday, emphasizing: “This happens all the time in the interior of the country,” although “Havana is more careful.”
Ugás, who fled the island by boat in 2010 and lives in Miami, questioned: “How can a Cuban live in the United States or China and not report this?” The Santiago native doesn’t understand those who choose to “go dancing and shake their butts with many who are sometimes like them: how can you be so insignificant in life?”
This happens all the time in the interior of the country,” although with “Havana they are more careful,” said Yordenis Ugás.
“How can a Cuban say he represents his country and his community and not denounce this?” Ugás asked. “How can you be so unworthy?” In his comment, echoed by Swing Completo the athlete notes: “So you can’t ask God why this suffering has lasted 66 years, when many of our people have pulled themselves out of the suffering and forgotten what happened.”
Ugás laments the sadness of his fellow countrymen, of “our families, our children, our neighbors, without power, without the hope of seeing the light tomorrow.” continue reading
While the power outages prevail on the island due to the collapse of the National Electric System last Friday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel speaks of “continuing the fight with optimism and faith in victory.” The energy collapse, the fourth in less than six months, has left the vast majority of Cuba’s 9.7 million people without power and, in many cases, without other basic services.
Ugás also denounced on social media that both Cuba and North Korea are “the two countries with the least freedom, at least economically.” The exiled boxer reiterated that he always condemns “all dictatorships, both left and right.” The Santiago native clarified that in “other countries, people can grow, read, and improve themselves and reach their heights.”
In another commentary, Ugás said that the closure of Martí Noticias “brought the communists in Havana to a celebration.” The exiled boxer recalled growing up “during the Special Period and the rafters [crisis], listening to Radio Martí reporting the news and the things and stories that were happening here and often there.”
The boxer commented that he became a TV Martí viewer since his mother arrived in Miami a few months ago. “Trump, in this second administration, has arrived with Musk, and while it’s true that government spending seems gross and unsustainable, injustice will surely be committed.”
Ugas acknowledges that he is no expert, however, “whatever decision makes the miserable dictators of Havana happy, I logically do not agree with it and I repudiate it.” He concluded his opinion with “God, Homeland, Life, Liberty.”
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Miami media reports that at least six migrant women from the island are on their way to San Diego, California.
The increase in deportations from U.S. territory occurs amid increased immigration controls. / U.S. Embassy in Cuba/Facebook
14ymedio, Madrid, 18 March 2025 — The number of Cuban migrants detained in the United States with Form I-220A* has increased in recent days. The most recent case, that of Beatriz Monteagudo, came to light thanks to a phone call she made from the Broward detention center in Florida, broadcast on Telemundo 51.
“I’m afraid they’ll transfer me to another state because they’re taking them to Louisiana, to Texas. And that really scares me, that they’ll transfer me to another state,” said Beatriz Monteagudo.
The Miami-based channel also spoke with a friend of the detainee, Johan Ariel, who said that last Monday, before Monteagudo left for her appointment at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), he wished her luck and asked her to report back when she returned, which didn’t happen.
“The moment she called me, she burst into tears. She said, ’Johan, I’m here. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why they detained me. There are 18 of us,’” the young man said, reporting their conversation. Having entered the US with a CBP One appointment he also fears for his fate.
Monteagudo’s case joins that of Laura de la Caridad González Sánchez, who was also detained while attending her immigration control appointment on March 10 at the same center in Miramar, South Florida. The 26-year-old nursing student had arrived in the US in September 2022 and was living—with her provisional release permit, known as I-220A, after requesting asylum—awaiting her trial, scheduled for December 25, 2025.
González was in Arizona this weekend before being transferred to California, her mother told Noticias 23. “I’m broken, I’m devastated. She’s my only daughter,” Celia Sánchez said. “There’s no explanation. They told her there that it was a group that had been chosen at random.” continue reading
“There is no explanation whatsoever. They told her there that it was a group that had been chosen at random.”
In these cases, families are being forthcoming in expressing their fears. Even Beatriz Monteagudo’s mother, who remains in Cuba, has done so. “We know practically nothing about our daughter. A girl who had done all her work. She had appeared in court. She had a work permit. She hasn’t committed any crimes. What a situation for young people who leave this country and cross borders and then are detained on top of that!” she lamented. “So, where do we seek freedom?” she told Telemundo.
Lisvani Sánchez is the husband of Denice Reyes, one of the cases that has sparked the most theories among exiles. Both arrived in the US in January 2022 and, like the others, are asylum seekers authorized to reside in the country with an I-220A. Last week, they also attended their appointment in Miramar and were detained, but their fates have been very different.
“At 4:00 p.m., they came and gave me back my papers, and they told me I had to leave, that my wife had to stay in custody. I asked them why, and they told me it was an order from above,” Sánchez said. His wife was taken to the Broward Detention Center, while he left with a GPS tracking device.
Yadira Cantallops Hernández, a US-born mother of a young child whose trial date is scheduled for April, is the latest of the Cubans whose identity has come to light, although there are at least two more, according to journalist Daniel Benítez, who has stated that the migrants are together and have San Diego as their final destination, with no further details available about what awaits them there.
The Miami press has sought opinions from specialized lawyers in recent days, given the confusion generated among Cubans remaining in the US with I-220A documents and awaiting a court decision. This group of migrants, who initially said they felt secure in their status amid the Trump administration’s harsh policies, has been shocked by the growing news of detentions of people in their situation.
Attorney Wilfredo Allen, in statements to the press, has urged migrants not to fail to attend their ICE appointments for fear of reprisals, as they could make things worse. “I believe that when they make these arrests, they are sending a message of panic and fear. A large portion of people are released immediately. In some cases, people who had I-220As and had no court date have been given a court date,” he said a few days before it was learned that this group of Cuban women were on their way to California.
Attorney Wilfredo Allen has asked migrants in statements to the press not to fail to attend their appointments with ICE for fear of retaliation, as this could make things worse.
In an interview with CiberCuba, Allen also urged Cuban-American Congressmen María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez, and Mario Díaz-Balart to intervene in this case. “It’s in their hands,” said the expert, who believes there is an administrative solution dependent on political will. “The Secretary of Homeland Security has the power to determine that I-220A is a legal entry for Cuban Adjustment, and it’s based on previously existing laws and memoranda regarding the entry of Cubans,” he maintained. Salazar, in particular, has repeatedly pledged to work for migrants in this situation.
Rosaly Chaviano, a specialist consulted by Telemundo, expressed her inability to understand what is happening. “We really don’t know, because ICE hasn’t officially said so, why they are detaining these people, but what we are seeing are these detentions based on violations of the conditions of I-220A,” she comments, referring to alleged breaches of the law or the conduct they are instructed to follow, although this does not appear to be the case with this group. “Definitely, if these people have no violations, that could be an argument to tell ICE that they are willing to comply with whatever they ask, whether it be bail or additional conditions,” Chaviano explained.
“What concerns us is that they will extend this interpretation of expedited deportations to those who are not currently in deportation court. Those who are I-220A without a court,” the lawyer added, urging them to be prepared for “any circumstance.”
The recording, which the Republican plans to share on social media, invites migrants to use CBP Home
This Tuesday, it was revealed that Trump took his immigration policies a step further by recording a video in which he asks undocumented immigrants to “self-deport” before authorities arrest them, according to the news site Axios , which obtained the footage. The recording, which the Republican plans to share on social media, invites migrants to use CBP Home, a government-provided app through which they can inform the administration that they are leaving the country.
“My Administration is launching the CBP Home app to provide individuals who are in our country illegally an easy way to leave now and voluntarily self-deport,” Trump explains. “If they do so, they may have the opportunity to return legally at some point in the future.” But, “if they do not take advantage of this opportunity, they will be found, deported, and never again be admitted to the United States—never, ever, ever again,” the president warns.
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“The only thing that works is the engine” and he had to invest “almost $5,000” to get it in acceptable condition
Olympic boxing champion Erislandy Álvarez claims that only the engine of the car Inder gave him is working. / Jit
14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 16 March 2025 — Cuban Olympic boxing champion Erislandy Álvarez criticized the distribution of damaged vehicles that the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) made a few days ago to encourage its outstanding athletes. “Why tag me in that distribution if what they gave me was crap,” the boxer posted on Facebook, and shortly afterward deleted the post .
Álvarez, who stood up for Cuban boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics by winning the island’s only gold medal in the sport, denounced that the only thing that works on the Hyundai Grand i10 vehicle that INDER gave him is the engine. The athlete asserted that, in just two weeks, he has invested “almost $5,000, and what’s missing” to bring it into acceptable condition. “These are things they don’t publish,” he said, referring to the reports made by the official media about the delivery of the cars.
The cars delivered are not new, but were taken from the tourist rental market. The regime used them to encourage retired athletes, coaches, and continue reading
active athletes for their “dedication and loyalty” at an event held this Monday at the Coliseum of Havana’s Sports City.
The cars delivered were taken from the tourism rental market and the regime took advantage of the opportunity to encourage retired athletes, coaches and sportsmen.
According to images shared on social media, they had some visible damage. The white car delivered to Briandy Molina Elías, according to an image shared on the Facebook page Por la Goma, is missing some parts and the paint is damaged.
Para-athlete Ulicer Aguilera Cruz was given another vehicle with a license plate bearing his name and the year 2024. The car is missing its wheel covers and the engine cover is misaligned, as seen in the photos published by Inder in Banes.
During the event at the Sports City, a vehicle was also presented to coach Raúl de Jesús Trujillo Díaz, the architect of the strategies and tactics that led Greco-Roman wrestling star Mijaín López to win five consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games: Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024.
Also receiving cars were Cuban athletes Enrique Figuerola Camué (athletics), Omara Durand Elías (parallel track and field), and Luis Miguel Rodríguez Ricardo (baseball). Coaches who received cars included Sarbelio Fuentes Rodríguez (boxing), Filiberto Alberto Delgado Santiago (wrestling), Miriam Ferrer Fernández (parallel track and field), and Nelson Perales García (canoeing).
The rest of the list includes: Erislandy Álvarez Borges (boxing), Luis Alberto Orta Sánchez (Greco-Roman wrestling), Yusneylis Guzmán López (freestyle wrestling), Milaimy de la Caridad Marín Potrillé (freestyle wrestling), Robiel Yankiel Sol Cervantes (parathlete), Yunier Fernández Izquierdo (table tennis), Guillermo Varona González (para-athletics), Yamel Luis Vives Suárez (para-athletics), Pablo Ramírez Barrientos (paraweights) and Sheyla Hernández Estupiñán (para-judo).
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“We are at home and they have kept our salaries until they decide what they are going to cut and what stays,” says a worker at the entity.
The media, active since 1985, seeks to promote democracy and the free flow of information in Cuba
14ymedio, Havana, 16 March 2025 — On Saturday, all employees of Radio and Television Martí were put on administrative leave, after a decision by the Trump administration to temporarily suspend the operation of the entity. The media, active since 1985, which seeks to promote democracy in Cuba, has been practically paralyzed.
“They sent us home, but our salaries will continue until they decide who will be cut and who stays,” said an employee who works in the digital division of Martí News. “We hope that this is only temporary and that everything will return to the way it was before, for the good of Cubans,” said the source, who preferred to remain anonymous.
The workers were notified of the temporary suspension of their activities through an email that reached their mailboxes on March 15. According to the electronic message, those affected will not only keep their salary for the time being but will also receive all their benefits until further notice.
The pause of Radio and Television Martí has come just one day after Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). The entity in turn manages the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, Middle East Broadcasting Network and Open Technology Fund.
Initially, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which oversees the Martí group with its radio, television and news website about the Island, was not included in the list of media. But this Saturday, the relief of its employees turned into deep concern after receiving the announcement of the group’s administrative leave. continue reading
During the day, the digital platform has continued to publish news but at a much slower pace than before. Readers have also perceived a drop in the use made by the website of press agency images, given that this week the cancellation of USAGM’s contracts with Reuters, AP and AFP was announced.
The decrease in the services of these agencies has caused Radio and Television Martí to have fewer photos, videos and other materials about the reality of the Island, which they used in their coverage and transmissions. According to the CaféFuerte website, the company has “about 100 workers between federal employees and contractors. Of the 46 professional employees registered on the federal payroll, all receive salaries above $100,000 per year.”
An internal source had assured this newspaper that they were not afraid that the Trump administration intended to close the Martí group
Last month, however, workers felt confident in the continuity of the project. An internal source had assured this newspaper that they were not afraid that the Trump Administration intended to close the Martí group.
“Elon Musk walks like a child with a torch in his hand burning left and right and causing concern among federal employees, a group of people who thought their jobs were secure. In the case of Martí, we are in one of the best moments in our history, with numbers that show how well we are doing our work: we exceed one million followers on Facebook; we have millions of views on our social networks from Cuba, and we are expanding audiences on the Island,” he stressed at the time.
Founded 40 years ago on May 20, Radio Martí was for several decades one of the few unofficial sources of information about the Island. In 1990, Television Martí came to light, which can barely be seen inside Cuba, where the radio signal also suffers from strong interference in several parts of the country.
The existence of the stations popularly known as “los Martí” has caused friction between the Cuban and US governments. Havana frequently demands that Washington eliminate transmissions, as happened during the diplomatic thaw led by Barack Obama and Raúl Castro from December 2014.
But the stations have suffered attacks not only from the regime. They experienced an intense controversy after a report commissioned by the federal government that revealed irregularities in the information management of certain topics.
One of its directors, former Miami mayor Tomás Regalado, resigned in September 2019, after a scandal involving his son, also an employee of the entity, who, allegedly, manipulated a news story about the popular riots in Nicaragua.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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The sound engineer, apparently removed from all official propaganda, also receives requests not to broadcast certain “controversial opinions.”
In recent years, with the intensification of the crisis, controls on the station’s employees have also increased / 14ymedio
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, March 17, 2025 — A few weeks ago Adriano resigned from Radio Ciudad del Mar, the local station in Cienfuegos where he had worked as a sound engineer since his college graduation. The decision cost him, especially because of the uncertainty of not knowing if he was going to find another job that he would enjoy as much. But he tells this newspaper that he does not regret putting a stop to what was happening inside the medium: “No one has the right to think for me or put words in my mouth.”
Working on the radio was not a dream he had as a child, but as a teenager, when he became interested in the work of Radio Ciudad del Mar, located in a two-story house in front of the Cienfuegos boardwalk. He was not so attracted to talking on the programs as to doing them himself, taking care of the music and sounds, and after graduating from Physical Culture he managed to sneak into the station.
However, with the work of a sound engineer, apparently far from all official propaganda, also came requests not to give certain “controversial opinions.” “The time came when it was impossible to broadcast one’s real thoughts or give opinions different from what is established on social networks and in the studio itself,” he says. continue reading
“The time came when it was impossible to broadcast one’s real thoughts or give opinions different from what is established on social networks and in the studio itself”
For Adriano the threshold of the door of Radio Ciudad del Mar marked the border between two different realities. Inside, the team and especially the announcers, “are continuously forced to broadcast news that is very distant from reality.” Outside, in the street, “we face criticism from listeners who call us liars or say we gloss over things that are serious. We find ourselves locked between what we’re supposed to say and what we experience daily as part of society.”
“It is very difficult to work in a place where anything that we do must have the approval of those from above. Creativity is subordinated to an institutional methodology, which in turn is subordinate to the orders from Havana,” explains the young Cienfuegan, who admits that, although surveillance is general, some people are more controlled than others. In the case of broadcasters, “the censorship is constant and comes from advisors, assistants and program directors. Whatever is minimally problematic is crushed by editorial policy, which is actually a straitjacket,” he says.
In recent years, with the intensification of the crisis, controls on the station’s employees have also increased. At the same time, Adriano adds, there are the practical problems: How do you broadcast without power? How do you record a program in a closed studio without air conditioning? How do you work without microphones, with old computers and sound equipment from decades ago?
“No one imagines how suffocating it is to work besieged by blackouts. The station’s generator does not support the equipment and air conditioners at the same time,” says the sound engineer, who reveals the tricks they used in the station to evade the suffocating heat. “While a program was running, we were bathed in sweat. Sometimes we played two or three songs in a row to have a few minutes to go out and catch the cool air that comes from the bay,” he confides.
“Sometimes we played two or three songs in a row to have a few minutes to go out and catch the cool air that comes from the bay” / 14ymedio
When a complaint was made to the superiors for not being able to connect the air conditioners or because the equipment was now too old and needed a replacement, “the response of the National Radio Directorate was always the same: there are no resources and the country faces a complex situation.”
This situation is also to the detriment of the audience, which is already diminished by the emergence of alternative means of information, more truthful, faster and which consume less of the public’s time. “If serious surveys were conducted at the station to evaluate audience levels, it would show that most people even prefer social networks to the radio to get information. In theory, the programming is designed for different audiences, but in practice it is very far from pleasing popular tastes,” he says.
As he explains, the station broadcasts live programs until ten at night. “From that time on, everything that is heard is recorded and, it must be said, it is not consistent with the demands of the early morning. Thus, an important segment of the population is lost, which deserves spaces capable of attracting the attention of radio subscribers,” he argues.
For a while, when Adriano saw several colleagues leave the radio to work in other state or private-sector centers, the question of whether he should leave worried him. The “thing,” he says, was having to choose between doing what he likes with a salary that does not reach 4,000 pesos – it depends on the number of programs that are made – along with constant surveillance, or giving priority to his discomfort with the censorship and a better pay.
But a month ago, when he learned that his wife was pregnant again, the indecision cleared up. However, Adriano assures that he did not leave the station just to ensure the family economy but that the pregnancy was only a catalyst. Between proposals to cut down to the least “subversive tone” and the frustration of not being able to do his job with quality, his departure from Radio Ciudad del Mar was “inevitable.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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Not even a police baton are able to prevent people from speaking loudly and badly against the government.
Tension is more abundant than oxygen among the food stalls, punished by the midday sun of Havana / 14ymedio
14ymedio, José Lassa, Havana, 15 March 2025 — The lack of enthusiasm of the three policemen who watched the Guanabacoa fair this Saturday, settled on their motorcycles, does not deceive anyone: they too have had a difficult night. For anyone’s nerves and body, an early morning of total blackout is devastating. Even so, you have to go out to look for food, and no matter how slim the pickings are, you have to take advantage of it.
The motorcycles come and go around the stalls, and the officers – two young men in blue and an older one in the army’s olive-green uniform – continue to watch over the transactions. But be careful. With a night like this Friday, not even a police baton is able to prevent many insults from being hurled loudly against the Government.
The blackout also has an amplifying effect on the general annoyance. If every weekend prices go up and pocketbooks lose power, after a night without sleep everyone wakes up in a bad mood. Customers are tense, and sellers are uncomfortable; those who listen are upset, but no one can think of what to do or what pill to resort to. continue reading
Two young policemen in blue and an older one in the olive-green uniform of the Army watch over the transactions / 14ymedio
A concern runs through the crowd: with the total blackout, the last reserves of liquefied gas in homes will have to be used. When what they have saved is used up, they will have to go back to using charcoal. The bread, increasingly compact and hard, is sold for 200 pesos in Guanabacoa, and only the rich – if that word makes any sense in Cuba – can afford to buy a bag from a street vendor.
The tension is more abundant than oxygen among the food stalls. The noonday sun is punishing; last night it was the mosquitoes and the blackout. One of the policemen wakes up and walks around the food fair. Fleeing from the sun as if he were a vampire, he soon returns to the comfort of his motorcycle.
Several kilometers away, in Luyanó, people also wake up hungry. The most desperate ride their bicycles up and down the street, hunting a seller. The bakery door is closed. Bad sign. A messenger explains that the bakeries in La Víbora – another Havana neighborhood – closed yesterday and they asked him to collect about 600 bags of bread.
“It was the only thing that could be done before the arrival of the blackout, and I have already sold everything,” he says, before continuing with his wheelbarrow on Arango Street.
The electronic equipment at the sugar mills had their own blackout.
Dodging the power cut and saving the equipment has become a macabre sport in Cuban homes, and there is not always luck. “You have to have everything disconnected when the current comes back on so that things don’t explode,” a housewife from Cienfuegos tells this newspaper. “In my house an air conditioner and a microwave oven have already bit the dust.”
When hunger presses, everyone looks for what they can, and no one has to remind the dumpster divers. About to dive into the trash, an old man pushes the bags away from the top to see if it’s worth exploring further. Like those lined up in Guanabacoa or pedaling under the Luyanó sun, his clothes are threadbare and his face full of wrinkles. They are emblematic of a country where the goal is to survive. Living will be for another day.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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14ymedio/EFE, Madrid/Miami, 20 March 2025 — Carlos Giménez, a Republican congressman of Cuban origin, asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to immediately investigate and deport more than 100 people who reside in the United States and have alleged links to the Castro regime.
