14ymedio – Page 99 – Translating Cuba

The Supermarket in ‘MLC’ on 3rd and 70th Succumbs to its Rival in Dollars

“It hasn’t been open for a month,” an employee of a small candy kiosk told ’14ymedio’.

The 3rd and 70th supermarket started selling in dollars in the 90s / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 8 June 2025 — The showdown between the American dollar and the freely convertible currency (MLC) continues to be won by the dollar. The supermarket on 3rd and 70th, in Havana, has finally succumbed to the lack of supplies and the tough competition from its neighbor, the well-stocked store in fulas [dollars], inaugurated in January this year. This Sunday, customers who came to one of the most famous stores since the 90s in the neighborhood of Miramar found its doors closed and the interior dark.

“It hasn’t opened for a month,” said an employee selling jam from a small kiosk outside, the only place that survived the debacle. With his face glued to the glass, a customer tried to decipher whether there was any merchandise left that foreshadowed a reopening. The damaged door, the dirty glass and the floor slabs full of holes do not augur, however, a rapid return from what became more than three decades ago a place frequented by diplomats, officials and foreigners.

This Sunday, customers who came to one of the most famous shops in the neighborhood of Miramar found its doors closed and the interior dark / 14ymedio

The store that was an emblem of dollarization from 1993 and then opened to the public has succumbed due to the weakness of the freely convertible currency. Its shelves and refrigerators, with scarce products, have not been able to compete with the new store, located on that same corner but across the street, on the ground floor of the hotel Gran Muthu Habana. continue reading

Its shelves and refrigerators, with few products, have not been able to compete with the new place / 14ymedio

Belonging to the Caribbean Stores of the Cimex corporation, one of the many branches of Cuba’s all-powerful Armed Forces Business Management Group, the luxurious establishment admits three forms of payment: cash dollars, foreign cards and the so-called Classic card that is recharged with dollars. While the opponent’s butcher shop languished, its refrigerated windows were exhibiting hams, cuts of beef, countless sausages and those chicken breasts that many Cuban families have not tasted for years.

A month ago the battle ended quietly. Collapsed on the canvas from lack of resources, unable to recover, the market in MLC ended up surrendering. On the other side of the street, propped up by greenbacks, its foreign-currency adversary has continued to earn, since then, tens of thousands of dollars every day.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Baseball Players Moncada, Pagés, Ibáñez, Hernández and Rodríguez Want to Play with Cuba in the World Classic

There is talk of a list of 10 U.S. Major League players to whom the Island will send an invitation.

Yoan Mocada, in the center, during the game against China’s Taipei team / Jit

14ymedio/Swing Completo, Havana, 8 June 2025 — Yoan Moncada, Andy Ibáñez, Andy Pagés and Daysbel Hernández are the players who have expressed their interest in playing with Cuba in the 2026 World Classic. Yariel Rodriguez could join them. He is backed by several Inder managers, despite having broken a contract in Japan, for which the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) demanded 10 million dollars for “damages.”

A source from the Island confirmed to the specialized media Swing Completo that there is a list of at least 10 Cuban Major League players who will be sent an invitation.

Moncada was part of the national team selection that failed in the Premier 12 tournament. The athlete from Cienfuegos, who was injured for most of the year, on that occasion “asked to be included” in the roster of 60 players, according to the specialized media Pelota Cubana.

“My dad wants to see me play for Cuba, and that’s all I care about,” says Andy Pagés / El Extrabase

Moncada, who in 2015 was signed by the US Boston Red Sox for 31.5 million dollars, took advantage of the window to get a third-base contract with the Los Angeles Angels.

The Los Angeles Dodgers player, Andy Pagés, has expressed his desire to join the Cuban national team. The athlete would thus fulfill his father’s wish. “From the beginning, I said yes. Already there were people who did not accept it and others who did,” he told Pelota Cubana USA. “I don’t worry about that. There will always be people who say bad things and others who support me. As I said, my dad wants to see me play for Cuba, and that’s all I care about.” continue reading

However, in the participation of Pagés in the World Classic, warned Andy Lans, “the most logical thing would be to think that the outfielder sees the above-mentioned competition as a possibility to display his skills. He is not the only one.”

In the case of Daysbel Hernández, his talent as a pitcher has been revealed with the Atlanta Braves / Francys Romero

In the case of Daysbel Hernandez his talent as a pitcher has been revealed with the Atlanta Braves in the Minor Leagues; his aspiration is still to reach the top circuit. The FCB has expressed its interest in being part of the pre-selection, and the specialized media see him as an option for a relief pitcher.

Andy Ibáñez was already part of the Asere team version and would be ready to return if there is a call. Another option is Ernesto Martinez Jr., who is with the Milwaukee Brewers and considered a promising prospect.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Government to Allow a U.S. Exporter to Open a Branch Office on the Island

A Chinese technology company and a Mexican food marketing company will also be able to do so, although none of the three will be able to directly market their products on the Island.

Maravana has a license from the U.S. Treasury Department to export vehicles to Cuba. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, June 1, 2025 — On Friday, Cuban authorities licensed three foreign companies to do business on the island. They will now be listed in the National Registry of Foreign Commercial Representatives, which will allow them to open branches on the island. The companies are the Mexican food marketing company Michoacana, the Chinese technology company Qingdao Hainergy, and — most notably — the American exporter Maravana Cargo, which already to ships second-hand vehicles from the United States.

With a 90-day deadline to formalize its registration, Maravana Cargo has permits to transport goods, “including sea and air parcels,” food “in all categories, automotive equipment in all categories, parts, pieces, and aggregates for the automotive sector.”

Always cautious when granting prerogatives to foreign companies and private businesses, especially those founded by Cuban-American entrepreneurs, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment has made it clear just what Maravana Cargo can and cannot do on the island. It states that the company may neither “import 0r export directly for commercial purposes, nor distribute or transport merchandise within the the country’s borders.”

As explained at the time to 14ymedio, the company already had a counterpart on the Island: Maracuba, which is responsible, in addition to delivering packages in all provinces – it has a fleet of vans for this purpose continue reading

– for delivering the vehicles to customers when they arrive at a Cuban port.
Maracuba’s counterpart on the island is Maravana, a company which owns a fleet of vans that it uses to deliver packages nationwide. It is also delivers imported vehicles to buyers after they have cleared Cuban customs

Maracuba’s counterpart on the island is Maravana, a company which owns a fleet of vans that it uses to deliver packages nationwide

The export license issued by the Treasury department prohibits the company from selling vehicles to members of the Communist Party and state-owned businesses.

Unlike the narrow license granted to Maravana, which is limited to the automotive and food sectors, those of Qingdao and Michoacana are much broader. The Chinese company has the green light to export to Cuba “goods and services from sectors such as the electronics industry, including household appliances, electrical equipment, renewable energy, information technology and telecommunications, air conditioning, educational and audiovisual media, medical equipment, refrigeration and boilers, lighting and irrigation equipment, motor vehicles, their parts, and spares.”

An addendum to the list of products the Chinese company is authorized to sell include medical equipment and furniture, toys and recreational items, land vehicles (including tractors and other vehicles used in the railway sector) audiovisual production equipment, and other equipment related to the energy sector, including nuclear reactors.

The restrictions imposed on the company are the same as those stated in Maravana Cargo’s license, and are repeated in the case of Michoacana.

The Mexican company is authorized to “produce and market food products

The Mexican company is authorized to “produce and market food products, inputs such as fertilizers, herbicides and other chemicals for crops and livestock, including raw materials for their production, as well as equipment and machinery associated with renewable energy sources.”

The three companies offer services and products that the Cuban government is unable to provide to its citizens, from scarce and expensive food items to vehicles that only a few can afford.

It remains to be seen how these companies will get around restrictions Havana has imposed to control private and foreign businesses and to monopolize the circulation of foreign currency on the island. The inability to repatriate their funds in dollars, a restriction the government implemented last April for all foreign companies operating in Cuba, will be one of these companies’ biggest challenges.

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Fractures of Castroism

Citizens are becoming more aware of their rights and are demanding from the dictatorship the spaces that belong to them.

Several people close a street in Old Havana to protest after several days without drinking water in their homes, on 11 November 2023 / Felipe Borrego/EFE

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 8 June 2025 — Everything seems to indicate that the ironclad social control established in Cuba by brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro, inherited by the inept Miguel Diaz-Canel, is cracking, although it is fair to say that this is not exclusively a consequence of the opposition’s courage, but rather the chronic inefficiency of the system, which has accumulated endless failures and errors over 66 years.

In a telephone conversation from Santa Clara, Guillermo Fariñas, 2010 Sakharov Prize winner and leader of the United Anti-Totalitarian Forum (Fantu), described how, despite the repression, which has resulted in the constant growth of the prison population for political reasons, citizens are developing a more precise awareness of their rights and demanding from the dictatorship the spaces that are theirs.

According to Fariñas, based on these demands, his organization has established a number of issues that activists promote in the queues that people are inevitably forced to stand in to resolve any situation, particularly those related to food and medicine.

One of the themes is the Castro regime’s unfulfilled promise to restore the 1940 Constitution, which guaranteed an open society with full respect for the rights of citizens. He told us that this is a case that is virtually unknown to younger generations, who have been submerged in complete ignorance of the past. continue reading

The immense majority of those who fought ’Castro-Communism’ in the initial years of the revolution and even afterwards, came from the revolutionary ranks.

Another issue that is brought up in the queues and discussed as if it were casual conversations is the farce that Fidel Castro embodied during the first months of the insurrection, denying that he intended to establish a communist regime, pointing out to people that the dictatorship was established with lies and false promises, an atmosphere that has been perpetuated over time.

The opposition leader, who is categorically prohibited from traveling to the nation’s capital, says that another issue that the militants in the queues is inciting violence, arguing that the Castro-led insurrection resorted to terrorism throughout its administration and that, consequently, they are morally invalidated from questioning anyone who resorts to intimidation to attack the government, since terrorism does not become good just because it promotes socialism.

Another interesting aspect that individuals in the ranks speak of as if by chance, is that the vast majority of those who fought Castro-communism in the initial years of the revolution and even afterward, came from the revolutionary ranks because they had been defrauded by the farce orchestrated by the Castros to perpetuate themselves in government.

The so-called internationalist missions in Africa are widely discussed, explaining to people that they were not genuine acts of solidarity, but rather Castro’s way of compensating for the economic and military aid coming from the Soviet Union, using Cubans as “cannon fodder,” sending them to fight on that continent where thousands of soldiers died and others were abandoned to the most extreme poverty.

The insurrection led by the Castros resorted to terrorism throughout its administration.

Two of the Castro regime’s biggest falsehoods are the free provision of medicine and education. Fantu activists point out that, since 1962, all workers have been directly deprived of 11.1% of their net wages, based on Decree-Law 147/1962. This deprivation also covers Social Security, a condition that does not make it a gift of totalitarianism.

The privileges in food and goods received by members of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior are addressed in the queues, in addition to the reasons that prevent the existence of other political parties. They add that the current energy crisis could have been avoided if, during the period of Chavismo’s rise in Venezuela (2001-2016), the enormous financial loans granted by Hugo Chávez for the remodeling of Cuban thermoelectric plants had been used.

Guillermo Fariñas says that several Fantu activists are in prison for bringing up these issues in the queues, including Oscar Sánchez Madan, political coordinator of the Fantu National Council and resident in the municipality of Matanzas, Pedro Luis Fernández Peralta, Fantu coordinator in the municipality of Diez de Octubre (Havana province), and Amaury Díaz García, municipal coordinator of Fantu in the city of Sancti Spíritus.

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They Fled to the US To Avoid Jail for Participating in Cuba’s July 2021 Protests and Now Fear Being Deported Back to Cuba

The two sisters arrived as rafters in 2022 and are trying to obtain political asylum.

Yaneris Redondo León and Mariana de la Caridad Fernández León when they were still living on the island. / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 7 June 2025 — Sisters Mariana de la Caridad Fernández León and Yaneris Redondo León, exiled in the United States after being sentenced to prison for participating in the 11 July 2021, protests in Havana, could be deported to Cuba if their request for political asylum is rejected. “Today we are afraid that we will be denied that protection,” Fernández denounced on social media, asserting that “returning could be equivalent—without exaggerating—to being sent directly to our deaths.”

The young woman’s post provides few details about the legal process she faces in the United States after arriving in the country illegally with her sister as rafters and requesting political asylum. However, it suggests that her case is one of many that have surfaced with Donald Trump’s new policies, which in recent months have ended several of the avenues opened by the previous administration for migrants to request international protection.

“We ask the United States government to act with justice, humanity, and historical memory. We are politically persecuted. We ask for protection, not privileges,” Fernández emphasizes, asserting that both she and her sister meet “each and every one of the legal and humanitarian requirements to obtain refugee status.” She adds that it would be “deeply unfair to return us to a country where we were already imprisoned for thinking differently and making our political stance clear.”

Fernández and Redondo, who were then 18 and 30 years old, participated in the mass protests that took place in the Mantilla neighborhood.

Their request has been supported by organizations such as Justice 11J, which stated: “What appears to be a decision not to provide protection by the United States authorities contradicts the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the return of a person to a country where they are at risk of being tortured, persecuted, or subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment, even if their asylum application has been denied.” continue reading

Fernández and Redondo, then aged 18 and 30, participated in the mass protests that took place in the Mantilla neighborhood of the capital in July 2021. During the demonstration, they were pepper-sprayed, beaten, and arrested. “My sister and I were locked up for 15 days without a court order. During our detention, we suffered psychological abuse, death threats, and medical neglect,” she says.

Thanks to the “superhuman efforts” of their family, both were released from prison after posting bail of 1,000 pesos each. For more than a year, while awaiting trial, they had to report regularly to the police, who forced them to “sign documents under threat of returning to prison” if they engaged in any act of dissent.

In July 2022, they were finally brought to trial for contempt of court, assault, and public disorder, crimes that, according to Fernandez, were “fabricated” by State Security. Both were found guilty. Redondo was sentenced to seven years in prison and Fernández to five, which was later reduced to years of house arrest.

They were notified that they had 72 hours to voluntarily surrender to the authorities and process their return to prison.

They were notified that they had 72 hours to voluntarily surrender to authorities and process their return to prison. “Faced with the imminent repression and the well-founded fear of what awaited us, we made the most difficult decision of our lives: to flee our country. On November 13, 2022, after a journey of more than 16 hours by sea, we arrived at an uninhabitable island, exhausted and without a clear direction, but with our hope intact. We managed to survive that dangerous journey and finally reach US territory, where we requested political asylum,” she added.

After entering the United States, Fernández even had to be hospitalized “due to the extreme physical exhaustion during the flight.” Now, however, she fears that all her sacrifice will be in vain. “We ask the United States government, the immigration judges, society, and all Cuban exiles to listen to us. Our cause is not individual. It is the cause of a people who continue to demand freedom.”

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Cuba’s ‘Army of White Coats’ Joins the Protest Against Etecsa’s ‘Tarifazo’

A group of academics, artists and journalists publish a letter of “support and solidarity” with the students protesting huge price increases for internet and telephone service

Students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Havana / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 7 June 72025 — After a “process of deep reflection,” the students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Havana – the elite of the “army of white coats” that Fidel Castro considered unconditional defenders of the Revolution – have also joined the virtual protests against the rate increases, known as ‘el tarifazo‘ [huge rate hike], announced by Etecsa, the country’s communications monopoly. The Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) of that institution reiterated, in a cautionary statement, its “firm position” against the decision of the telecommunications monopoly on prices.

The letter, spread on social networks, is a reaction to the meeting held between the FEU and the authorities of Etecsa last Thursday, in which representatives of the students proposed changes such as facilitating the creation of “new national technology companies or associated MSMEs,” to enable cash payment in both pesos and dollars, to reduce the dependence on digital platforms such as Transfermobile and to “promote agreements with countries such as China or Russia to obtain financing and improve the technological infrastructure.” However, the answers given by the authorities were, it says, “insufficient and evasive.”

Raising the tone, the medical students reproached Etecsa for ignoring “the structural needs of millions” and proposing minimal solutions that do not solve the main problem. “We do not accept that a part of the student population should be privileged while workers, scientists, teachers, the elderly and our own families are excluded.”

They also pointed to the FEU administrative authority in the University, from which they expected the “leadership,” “accompaniment” and “support” that “never arrived.” “The absence of our superiors at decisive moments was not only strategic, it was symbolic: an expression of the abandonment that we are no longer willing to tolerate,” says the document in which, a few paragraphs later, the FEU of the faculty breaks with the administration: “They don’t represent us!” continue reading

After ensuring that they will not admit “empty structures or disconnected hierarchies,” the students called on other university faculties of the Island to join in the student demands

After assuring that they will not admit “empty structures or disconnected hierarchies”, the students called on other university faculties of the Island to join in the student demands. “We are not alone. We join the wave of courageous announcements from sister faculties (…). There can be no development without connectivity. There can be no revolutionary morality without the right to criticism. There can be no justice if the majority is sacrificed in favor of a few.”

Similar notes of “rejection” and “disagreement” with the measures of Etecsa have been published by students from other careers, such as Tourism in Havana in recent days. There have also been videos of young people holding meetings with authorities in which they question the decisions of a system that “does not solve” problems and that, despite the daily crises, “takes away what allowed us to escape from reality.”

Etecsa’s policies, which they accuse of violating the contract that obliges the company to notify the population of any change in its services one month in advance, “is not a mistake, it is a pattern,” continues one of the students in these meetings. “How often are decisions taken that affect millions without consulting us? (…) We are taught to resist, but that is not synonymous with submission,” they say.

There is also a message circulating on social networks and WhatsApp groups of dubious origin calling for a “mobilization” of students to hold sit-ins in front of universities and marches on campuses. This text has been denounced as false by the activist Yamilka Lafita, who said that this type of communication ends up “tarnishing and delegitimizing the civic, critical and honest work being done by students from various faculties in the country.”

“This type of content, manufactured by interests outside the student body, only serves to divide, confuse and stop the conscious awakening of those who, from the classrooms, are demanding rights, dignity and real participation,” she highlighted on her Facebook page, which she manages under the name of Lara Crofs.

Other sections of the population have also expressed their discontent and supported the students’ demands. This is the case of a group of academics and intellectuals who have written a letter in “support and solidarity with the students of the Island, calling on the international community to defend the students and teachers from reprisals that they are suffering for making their claims public.”

Other sectors of the population have also expressed their discontent and supported the students’ claims

“For the first time in decades, the Cuban student community, honoring old republican traditions of participation in political and social affairs, has raised its voice in the face of this outrage, even calling for a national university strike,” says the text, adding: “It has become a target of the repressive machinery of the regime, which has already launched an information manipulation campaign, because it hopes that a similar persecution will be unleashed against them as was used against the protesters of July 2021.” At the bottom of the statement, dozens of activists, artists and intellectuals have left their signatures.

The citizen platform Archipelago has also put in writing its “admiration” for the university students, who have decided not only to protest but have called for a student strike. “Who said the young people were lost? You are the protagonists of a unique moment, and you are regaining the hopes of millions. You are making history,” it published, thanking the young people for showing that “Cuba is alive.”.

Despite the unprecedented mobilization that the country is experiencing against a decision taken by the regime, the authorities have made it clear that they will not back down, arguing that Etecsa needs currency to guarantee its services and that there is no other option.

Last Thursday, the law students at Holguín University went one step further and filed a lawsuit against the telecommunications monopoly that probably no court will admit. The students questioned the ’tarifazo’ on mobile and data services, describing it as “exclusive, classist and contrary to the law,” supporting their claim in the Constitution and the Penal Code.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Two Teenagers Struck by Lightning in Cuba Died and a Girl Drowned in Artemis

The boys were identified by some neighbors on social networks as Luis Antonio and Maicol

14ymedio, Havana, June 8, 2025 — The municipality of Bauta, in the province of Artemisa, experienced a day of mourning after several fatal events resulted in the deaths of three minors. In the first case, a three-year-old girl drowned on the beach, and two teenagers, 13 and 16, were struck by lightning.

According to the official press, which barely revealed details about the incidents, the girl and her family lived in the municipality of Caimito but were allegedly on holiday in a house at Playa Baracoa.

In the case of the teenagers, the local newspaper, El Artemiseño, said they were struck by lightning around 5:30 pm on Saturday while playing football “outdoors” in the neighborhood of Pita, in the popular council Urban 2 of Bauta. The boys were identified by some neighbors on social networks as Luis Antonio and Maicol, without giving any last names. continue reading

They were struck by lightning near 5:30 pm on Saturday while playing “outdoor” soccer in the Pita neighborhood

While in other countries warnings are frequent to the population to take shelter when there are thunderstorms, the weather reports on the island rarely include calls to the population to protect themselves from lightning, which is usually fatal when it hits someone.

In July 2020, two people died and 12 others were injured in the municipality of Florida, Camagüey, due to an electric shock. The victims of the accident were traveling along a road in the territory when they were struck by lightning, and the survivors had to be admitted to local hospitals.

Cuba records an annual average of 54 deaths from lightning strikes, the leading cause of death due to meteorological phenomena on the island, with 1,742 deaths between 1987 and 2017, according to the latest available data from a study carried out by specialists of the Island’s Meteorological Institute (Insmet).

At that time, lightning deaths exceeded those caused by hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural phenomena, although the erosion of infrastructure and lack of resources to protect citizens may have influenced these figures in recent years.

Translation by Regina Anavy

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With Months of Delay in Cuba Due to Non-Payment of Imports, Distribution of Liquefied Gas Begins

Priority will be given to customers who have not been served “since January or earlier.”

Ship with liquefied gas at the dock of the Hermanos Díaz refinery, in Santiago de Cuba / Cubdebate

14ymedio, Havana, 27 May 2025 — After the funds were completed to pay for the ship that is at the international dock of the Hermanos Díaz refinery in Santiago de Cuba, the discharge of liquefied gas began on Tuesday, confirmed the Unión Cuba Petróleo (Cupet). The government’s insolvency has prevented supplies to 1.7 million households in recent months, leaving ships waiting weeks before they can deliver their goods.

Last Thursday the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Argelio Jesús Abad Vigoa, said that two or three days after the start of marketing liquefied gas in the eastern provinces, distribution will extend to the west of the country.

The director of the Territorial Division for Marketing of Fuel, Lisset González Sardinas, said that “the organizational conditions of distribution and marketing are created,” so “100 percent coverage in a period of 24 days is expected.”

As part of the logistics, it was indicated that the Ticket application will come into operation, “for which 80 daily shifts will be released, with customers occupying a separate line.” This became three lines, along with the composition of the support team that would lead the organization of the point of sale at each marketing point. continue reading

As part of the logistics, it was indicated that the Ticket application will come into operation, “for which 80 daily shifts will be released, with customers occupying an independent line”

According to the plan, “14,000 cylinders per day are expected to be extracted from the cylinder filling plant for transport to the centers in Santiago de Cuba and the rest of the territories.” Although the planned production includes the extraction of 4,000 cylinders in the morning and 3,500 in the afternoon, this will depend on whether there are no “setbacks in the industry.”

At least 164 cylinders will be taken every day to each marketing point and “will be sold to customers, who since January or before, have not received liquefied gas.” It has been specified that in the two following turns those people will be given preference who bought until the February 15, and the distribution will continue like this, with the following turns being sold to the rest of the customers successively.

“Each customer will buy only once, regardless of the cycle interval of their group. Until all of the customers are served, they will not be able to make a new purchase. This decision seeks to cover all the demand that exists today,” published the newspaper Sierra Maestra.

According to information disseminated by Granma, the liquefied gas will be supplied to “care centers, educational institutions and others of social importance”. Each province was left to implement a strategy and to do so quickly.

This Tuesday the priority of supply of liquefied gas will be the population that lives in tall buildings, such as those on the 18 floors of Garzón and Martí. On Wednesday, the supply includes the residents of the 18 floors of Micro 9, along with other tall buildings in the city, such as the 20 floors located in the municipality of Trocha, Versalles and Block J of the José Martí Urban Center.

Due to the lack of liquefied gas, Cubans have filled the cylinders with methane gas / Cupet

The distribution also includes sales outlets for commercial houses in the towns of El Cobre, Melgarejo and Boniato. After that, it will cover those located in the districts of Antonio Maceo and Abel Santamaría, which includes the village of El Caney. Santiago de Cuba will be supplied on alternate days. Beginning on the ninth day, distribution will occur in the settlements of El Brujo, Sevilla, El Espardillo and El Castillito.

The despair over the lack of liquefied gas in Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara, Ciego de Ávila, Matanzas and Cienfuegos encouraged all kinds of risky practices such as filling cylinders with natural methane gas instead of liquefied gas. This means that the small cylinders are subjected to twice the pressure, with the danger of an explosion.

“It’s a risky time bomb in our kitchens, because liquefied gas is denser than natural gas, and natural gas spreads faster and is more volatile in the air,” warned a young man worked at the Methane Gas Plant.

The first deputy minister of the Ministry of Energy and Mines said that in the case of the central provinces from Villa Clara to Ciego de Ávila, “they will continue to be supplied with the products of the Cienfuegos Refinery.” The official acknowledged that the shortage is “one of the major current problems for cooking food, and it is one of the causes of the increase in demand for electricity.”

Eleven days after the triumphant announcement of the completion of maintenance at the Cienfuegos refinery, the official newspaper Vanguardia confirmed that the shutdown of the refinery was due to the slow arrival of the ship carrying the crude oil, because “it had a technical failure which prevented its arrival as planned.” Domestic gas production covers only 13 per cent of demand, and the rest depends on increasingly expensive imports, whose price has risen by almost 40 per cent in the last six months.

Denying the optimism of the official media, “it won’t be until the weekend when the plants start and liquefied gas production is restarted,” said Irenaldo Pérez Cardoso, deputy director of Cupet. The picture does not seem to change. In Matanzas, more than 100,000 households are without cylinders and the distribution works half-way. In Havana, Artemisa and Mayabeque, about 99,000 customers did not have access to the service between October and November 2024.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Owner of ‘Cuban Costco’ is on a Hunger and Thirst Strike in the Combinado Del Este Prison

“He’s been ‘planted’ hard [refused to cooperate with prison authorities] and in solitary confinement,” says a relative of Frank Cuspinera.

Frank Cuspinera, in a photo from two years ago / Instagram

14ymedio, Havana, June 6, 2025 — As announced, Frank Cuspinera, owner of Diplomarket, the “Cuban Costco”, imprisoned in the Combinado del Este, has been on a hunger and thirst strike since June 1. “He’s standing firm” tells 14ymedio a relative of the Cuban-American businessman who calls himself Luis for fear of reprisals.

Cuspinera has been taken to an isolation cell. “He cannot receive visitors or make calls,” says Luis. He reports that the authorities called the businessman’s wife, Camila Castro, who is out of jail but also being investigated for the same crimes Cuspinera is accused of – tax evasion, currency trafficking and money laundering – to tell her that they are concerned about her husband’s health.

Castro went to jail this Thursday, called by the authorities to perform “family dynamics,” says Luis. This is what they call it, “when the relatives of a ’plantado’ are brought in to convince him to stop the strike”. He goes on: “They wanted to bring in the family dynamic without even knowing Frank’s emotional profile, without even having found out the reasons why he’s carrying out the strike. Obviously they were only complying with an institutional protocol, so it will be recorded in some file that they did what they had to do and called the family.”

His wife went to the jail this Thursday, called by the authorities to perform “family dynamics”

For the family, there is no real worry or professional psychological work behind it, so neither Cuspinera’s mother nor his wife accepted the “dynamics.” All of them fear, says Luis, that the entrepreneur will end up in the hospital “faster than we think” if he continues not to ingest liquids – the human body survives only a few days without water. continue reading

Cuspinera announced his hunger strike in a handwritten letter signed on May 21 and sent from the Combinado del Este, almost a year after his arrest with no news of his whereabouts. In it, he made “an appeal to the international community, to international and human rights bodies,” as well as to the United States Department of State, “to intervene with the Cuban institutions for the constant violations of my rights and the denial of legal guarantees for my defense by the Cuban state institutions and their representatives.”

The businessman complained that he was manipulated by State Security and the Cuban judicial apparatus, “which are viciously activated against me” and which managed, with “multiple falsehoods”, to accuse him “without the right of defense”.

Several Diplomarket workers are being investigated and ’regulated’

All this was confirmed to 14ymedio by Luis, who gave details about the case, since the Diplomarket was closed and its owners arrested on June 20, 2024. After receiving the visit of officials from the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT) who “had a complaint for tax evasion, without having done a prior audit”, the Technical Directorate of Investigations (DTI) appeared in the supermarket. The entrepreneurs were arrested and their business licenses taken away “immediately” from both Cuspinera SURL, the firm under which the supermarket operated, and Kmila-mart, his wife’s company, leaving them “inoperable”.

A former collaborator of Cuspinera and Castro, who also requests anonymity, tells this newspaper that several Diplomarket workers now are “regulated“; that is, they are not allowed to leave the country. “There are several people who have tried to leave Cuba; no one informed them of anything, and when they got to the airport they were told that they couldn’t leave and lost their plane tickets,” says the source.

“When you go to see the instructor, Major Yiset Oliva Betancourt, she tells you that you cannot leave the country because all the workers in that company are under investigation.” The situation, the man denounces, goes against the Constitution, which in article 52 decrees freedom of movement.

One month before the operation against Diplomarket, the company’s accountant left the country without notice

A third source related to Cuspinera, whom we will call Olga, says that one month before the operation against Diplomarket, the founder of the company’s accounting department and the wife of the general manager of Kmila-mart, “left the country without meeting the review period for their work and without prior notice”. According to Olga, the managers of the company later discovered that “there were bad procedures in their work,” and they undertook an “internal audit.”

At the time of arrest, Olga says, “there were already indications of capital misappropriation and defaults,” but the investigation could not be concluded due to the closing of commercial operations. “Some time after her husband left the country, it became known that they are both in the United States,” says the woman, who cannot confirm “how much could have been diverted.”

The couple’s behavior in any case, is “highly suspect,” and “the authorities have not taken this into account, making Frank solely responsible.”

Luis, who categorically denied that Cuspinera was associated in any way with the regime, ventured before 14ymedio a few days ago that what happened may have to do with the success achieved by the Cuban-American, and that, once arrested, the State Security “pulled” all the information about the operation of Diplomarket to implement the “model” in the current dollar stores, inaugurated on the last day of December with the Supermarket 3rd and 70th.

“Here everyone knows that all the MSMEs do currency trafficking, because when they enacted the laws for private companies it was done knowing that there would never be availability in the bank to obtain the currency legally. It is known that the largest percentage of everything sold in Cuba are imported products obtained with foreign exchange transactions, because nothing is produced here, so you have to import to produce later,” said the source. “They let you run knowing that they have the power to invoke this crime when they don’t want to let you run anymore, and they choose MSMEs that got out of their hands to eliminate them.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Law Students in Holguín, Cuba, File a Lawsuit Against Etecsa for the ‘Tarifazo’: Phone and Internet Rate Increases

The new prices violate educational rights and deepen social inequalities.

View of the Holguín boulevard taken from the intersection of Martí and Libertad streets / Luis Ernesto/Visión desde Cuba

14ymedio, Holguin, June 7, 2025 — Law Students at the University of Holguín filed a formal lawsuit against the Cuban Telecommunications Company S.A. (Etecsa), in a gesture unprecedented in the recent history of the country. The students questioned the recent mobile and data services rate increases — commonly referred to as the ’tarifazo’ — supporting their claim in the Constitution, the Penal Code and various national regulations. The signatories consider this measure -defended and maintained yesterday afternoon by President Miguel Díaz-Canel – as “exclusivist, classist and contrary to law.”

The demand was made public by the students themselves through their social networks. One of them, René Javier, wrote on Facebook: “Every jurist, whether trained or in training, has a duty to fight against three giants: fear, injustice and ignorance.”

On the basis of articles 384 and 385 of the current Penal Code, the plaintiffs reject any “institution or public official who objects to the exercise of the right of free, direct and unsupervised consultation,” as well as “those who exercise coercion, detention, harassment, separation or institutional sanction against any student, teacher or worker.”

According to the students, the state-owned Etecsa violated its own contractual terms – specifically points 7 and 19 – by imposing price changes without prior notice, in breach of the clause requiring notification of any change at least 30 days in advance. The president of the company, Tania Velázquez, justified this decision by claiming that it sought to avoid “anxiety” in customers and “actions” by the population. continue reading

In the document – written in legal language and supported by constitutional arguments – the signatories warn that the new price increase not only violates educational and communication rights, but also deepens social inequalities. The limitation of service to only 6 GB and sectoral solutions represent “a social segmentation of Cuban society,” they said.

The students also challenged any attempt to delegitimize their thinking, falsely accusing them of acting under “manipulation, interference or external intervention.” The president himself, Diaz-Canel, in his podcast From the Presidency, denied that there was any conflict with the student body and stated that the news about protests and academic stoppage were a fabrication of “a totally despicable matrix.”

Although they do not have the backing of the ruling Federation of University Students (FEU), which parrots the interests of the Communist Party of Cuba, the students also condemn the partial dollarization of internet access through establishing re-charges from abroad. They consider that this system excludes those sectors of the population that do not receive remittances and reinforces the social gap between those who have access to foreign currency and those who depend exclusively on wages in Cuban pesos.

“This is not only an economic issue,” said René Javier, the young man from Holguín, but a flagrant violation of the right to information, fairness and personal development.”

The students also propose a meeting for dialogue with Etecsa between June 6 and 13, to find a consensual and peaceful solution to the crisis that is affecting a large part of the population. However, they make it clear that they reject any attempt at political instrumentalization or co-optation by official structures. Neither the FEU nor the management of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Holguín showed their support, so the signatories reject any gesture of support after the publication of the document.

“We request a firm response from the defendant,” they conclude, “to declare our claim admissible with all its pronouncements in the required period.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban Regime Dismisses Citizen Protests Against Etecsa’s Rate Hike, ‘el Tarifazo’

Díaz-Canel justifies the increase in internet prices: “I see it as a tactical retreat.”

Díaz-Canel categorically denied any conflict with the students. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 5 June 2025 — The podcast “Desde la presidencia,” [From the Presidency] broadcast this Thursday on the State TV’s Round Table program, confirmed what was already evident: the absolute disconnection of the Cuban regime’s bureaucracy from the debates and real demands of the citizenry. It took Miguel Díaz-Canel a week to address the crisis following the unpopular Etecsa rate increases for phone and internet service. And he did so by repeating the same justifications of the last few days and making it clear that, if there are changes, they will be minimal, because the essentials remain the same. “If we don’t apply them, we would be very close to technological collapse,” he said of the controversial rates.

Faced with widespread criticism that the thirteenfold increase and disguised dollarization of the state-run telecommunications monopoly’s rates had come at the worst possible time, the president’s response was a gem of political cynicism: “There’s never been a better time.” And as if that weren’t enough, he added: “I see it as a tactical retreat. We were moving forward and forward, we have to stop and step back a bit, accumulate what we need, so as not to deny the development we need in the immediate present and in the future.”

To support the new rates, the officials accompanying the president, the Vice Minister of Communications, Ernesto Rodríguez Hernández, and the president of Etecsa, Tania Velázquez, provided a wealth of technical data, including a graph showing revenues—on a downward slope—and data consumption, crossing in the opposite direction. Among the most striking data was the number of radio base stations, of which there are 5,600 on the island, half of which lack power backup.

Among the most striking data was that of the radio bases, of which there are 5,600 on the Island, half of them without power backup.

“Today, depending on its design, a base station connects between 900 and 3,000 people. So, when it goes down, we’re talking about 3,000 users immediately losing connection, losing communication,” Velázquez specified. Purchasing a new one costs $100,000, she said, “and that’s money we don’t have available. Neither to replace nor to expand coverage, continue reading

for example, in 4G, which only covers 50% of the country and 50% of the population.”

There’s also the shortage of battery banks, she added. About 2,800 are needed to replace damaged ones, but each one costs $1,500. Adding to the total, there are 25,000 landline telephones that have been without service for six months because there is no money to repair them, and new cell phones can’t be sold because of a shortage of SIM cards.

With this litany of shortcomings, what is inexplicable, not to say negligent, is the failure to plan investments in time to reverse the situation. But Díaz-Canel, as if the problem had just arrived, said that the rate increase is something that “we are obliged to take if we want—and it is what we want—to save, first and foremost, a basic service for the population, and one essential for advancing the country’s digital transformation.”

Knowing, however, that the population is up in arms against this colossal blow—which is occurring at the same time they are seeing more and more hotels being built that are never filled—he offered, in his own way, a meager apology. “It is necessary to recognize where we have failed in communicating or designing them,” he admitted regarding the new measures. And in a seemingly conciliatory manner, he said: “The leadership of the Revolution will never shy away from dialogue with the people, because our reason for being is precisely to serve the people.”

“The leadership of the Revolution will never shy away from dialogue with the people, because our reason for being is precisely to serve the people.”

In recent days, the internal fracture these measures have caused within the state apparatus itself has been laid bare. This isn’t just about ETECSA. The decisions were pushed by the head of government, Manuel Marrero Cruz, and blessed since late 2024 by the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC). But, faced with popular fury, both Díaz-Canel and Marrero preferred to throw the company’s executives into the crossfire, using them as a shield.

And yet, the rift opened. Last Saturday, from his Facebook wall, the very official Ernesto Limia Díaz—vice president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and a trusted essayist of the regime—publicly attacked the prime minister. He began his message by aligning himself with Díaz-Canel, whom he called “our president” and showering him with praise for his actions during previous crises. But then he mentioned Marrero—without titles or affection—and demanded that he show his face. In an unexpected outburst, he wrote that it was he who should “undo wrongs,” blaming him directly for the rate increase.

His courage didn’t last long. After Roberto Morales Ojeda—known as the “guillotine of cadres” within the PCC—posted a call to “close ranks,” Limia reversed course. In his new post , with a melancholic tone and barricade-like vocabulary, he spoke of “shooting ourselves in the foot,” blamed “Marco Rubio and the Batista clique,” and asked, with selective memory: “Strikes for what?” The story, apparently, weighs more than 6 GB.

La Manigua Telegram Group, home to the most radical and violent sectors of the ruling party. / Screenshot

The Cuban student rebellion, however, has already crossed the Atlantic. Even the podcast La Base—a sanctuary of former Spanish leader Pablo Iglesias—devoted a special episode to the topic. The only interviewee from the island, paradoxically, was not a student, but Ernesto Teuma, a member of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). His testimony was equally damning: he acknowledged that the current bureaucracy, “in the absence of Fidel, has failed to build itself with a new generation of leaders.” The comrade’s statement left the presenters speechless, after almost an hour of prelude heavy on nostalgic sentimentality and external justifications.

In the podcast broadcast by Cuban Television, the president of Etecsa acknowledged that limiting consumption to 6 GB was a deliberate strategy to push customers to seek international top-ups. It is precisely this diaspora, denied the right to express their opinions and accused of spreading “scurrilous ideas,” that the state monopoly intends to exploit even further to keep its finances afloat.

For his part, Díaz-Canel categorically denied any conflict with the students. He said the photos, videos, and testimonies circulating on social media about the academic strike—without ever mentioning the word “strike”—are manipulations by “counterrevolutionary hate platforms.” But university channels themselves have published minutes, communications, and interventions that contradict the president. The strike is a fact, as is the call for the resignation of the leaders of the University Student Federation, accused of not representing anyone who doesn’t wear an official guayabera.

In the Telegram group La Manigua, the cradle of the most radical and violent sectors of the ruling party, user Yuri Aguiar Luna published a warning this Thursday that seems to reflect the preference of some sectors of the regime for repression rather than dialogue: “I’m reminding some of the kids at MatCom (Faculty of Mathematics and Computing) that yesterday, June 4, was the anniversary of Tiananmen.”

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The Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba Announces its First Convention Inside the Island

“The country is in transition, even though the regime denies it. The challenge is to organize, channel, and sustain this transition in an ethical, peaceful, and democratic manner.”

The CTDC was founded weeks before the historic protests of 11J / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, June 6, 2025 — In the midst of growing social unrest and the recent university protests in Cuba following the strike over Etecsa’s price increases, the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) announced this Friday the holding of its First Democratic Convention, under the motto “We are in transition.” The event, which will take place from tomorrow, Saturday, and will last for several weeks, seeks to map out a citizen’s path to the democratic future of the country.

With citizens’ rights and the rule of law as central tenets, the meeting aims to build concrete proposals from Cuban civil society, involving both citizens living on the island and Cubans in exile.

During the first 14 days, more than 900 Cubans will participate in 100 assemblies

The Convention will be divided into two phases: an initial phase of citizen discussion, face-to-face meetings in various locations throughout the country, and a subsequent phase of institutional deliberation. During the first 14 days, more than 900 Cubans will participate in 100 open citizens’ assemblies in different parts of the country. This stage aims to collect local diagnoses, identify priorities and build a Citizens’ Agenda, nourished by the aspirations, demands and proposals of the participants.

According to the CTDC, this phase continues a preliminary process of deliberation that has been developed in recent years in closed spaces, often discreetly, to avoid reprisals. continue reading

The second phase, which is institutional in nature and through online platforms, will bring together organizations affiliated with the Council and independent actors both within and outside the country. This segment will focus on the internal consolidation of the CTDC and the elaboration of a democratic vision with a State perspective, based on principles such as separation of powers, respect for human rights and priority attention to political prisoners.

Several CTDC members are currently in prison

Several of its members are currently in prison, including its president, José Daniel Ferrer, and vice-president, Félix Navarro. Both opponents were part of the group of prisoners released last January, under an agreement between the regime and the Vatican, and returned to prison eight days after the death of Pope Francis.

The event is held at a crucial moment, as the Council itself warns, marked by the hardening of authoritarianism, the growing discredit of the Cuban regime and the need to offer alternatives structured from civil society. The Convention aims to become a space for civic articulation and legitimacy in the face of the State’s lack of institutional representation.

“The country is in transition, even if the regime denies it,” says the statement. “The challenge is to order, channel and sustain this transition in an ethical, peaceful and democratic way”.

The Council was founded in Cuba on June 14, 2021 – a few weeks before the historic protests of 11J [11 July 2021] – and acquired international legal personality after its legal formalization before a public notary in Spain on January 14, 2022, where the articles of association and the founding document were certified. This process included their legalization before the Madrid Notarial College, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, as well as before the Consulate General of Cuba in Madrid, fulfilling all the requirements for legitimacy required by Spanish law. Finally, the CTDC was annotated on April 5, 2022, in accordance with the Hague Convention, giving it international validity. The entire process was managed by attorney Ernesto Gutiérrez Tamargo, legal coordinator of the Council.

“The country is in transition, even if the regime denies it”, says the statement

At the time of its founding, 14 organizations converged in an unprecedented union. Today, the Council is composed of 28 independent organizations and actors, who are committed to collective work, democratic institutions and plurality as pillars of change.

On its fourth anniversary, the CTDC says that “We are in transition” is not just a slogan, but “an affirmation of the present and a call to imagine, build and sustain a free, plural and peaceful Cuba.”

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Etecsa’s Phone and Internet Rate Hikes, the ‘Tarifazo’, Fracture the FEU, the Student Pillar of the Cuban Regime

Students at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Havana announced an indefinite academic strike that will begin today if nothing changes.

The University of Havana’s FEU (Federal University of Havana) has proclaimed that the organization is united, but the different ways of addressing this crisis are generating a lot of talk. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Madrid, June 4, 2025 — The situation is complicated for the Cuban government after the unrest generated by the enormous increase in the prices of the state-owned telecommunications company Etecsa. Although the authorities announced this Monday a battery of measures with which they intend to calm minds in the education sector, the storm does not subside, and students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing (Matcom) of the University of Havana (UH) announced an indefinite academic strike that will begin today, if nothing changes.

The students released a statement on social networks – later restricted to followers, but not deleted – calling for them to join the protest “bearing in mind that the explanations given in the debate spaces between student bodies and the managers of Etecsa [the State telecommunications company] have not given feasible solutions to the people’s demands.” The students have three fundamental demands, the first being the reversal of the rates announced last Friday, May 30, which multiplied by 13 times the previous prices for some options and prioritized payment in dollars from outside Cuba.

The organizers call for an open meeting with those responsible for what has come to be called the “tarifazo“* and promise to contribute to the analysis and proposal of solutions by sharing their knowledge. They also call for the whole of society to be involved in finding a way out of the situation, and this is perhaps the most significant demand, although it is the most generic. The communiqué closes with a declaration of intent, beginning with a closing of ranks with the regime, and requesting that the response not be limited to the academic sector.

The communiqué closes with a declaration of intent, beginning with a closing of ranks with the regime, and requesting that the response not be limited to the academic sector

“We invite the management of our University of Havana to recognize this legitimate protest, in terms of being a public institution that must represent its students, as it has shown with total interest and conviction so far, to avoid misrepresentation in our revolutionary and honest intentions, which are not content with privileges for the university students but in clear continue reading

solutions for the people,” demands the statement.

The words do not seem to have found an echo in the University of Havana’s board, which has responded to the call indirectly indicating that meetings were held with those responsible for Etecsa, and the solution must be in this dialogue. “It must be made clear that nothing and no one will interrupt our teaching processes with calls that are totally out of touch with the spirit which has animated exchanges with student and youth organizations,” they warned in a veiled allusion to the call, which became private shortly after publication, as announced by the same officials.

“The Matcom Telegram channel was not deleted. We made it private because people from outside the faculty are entering the group of our institution, and we want to moderate the intentions that can be projected. It is a measure taken by the FEU students themselves to protect the purity of our cause,” they say in a Facebook post, where it was shown that at least part of the University Student Federation, members from the Communist Party machinery who support the regime, are supporting these initiatives.

This was confirmed by the publication of a letter from the FEU Council and the Committee of the Union of Young Communists of the Technological University of Havana José Antonio Echeverría (CUJAE), drawn up on the basis of the measures for the student sector announced on Monday. In it, both organizations jointly claim to address the demands of their students when it comes to expressing “again” their dissatisfaction and requesting “more concrete and inclusive solutions in a timely manner,” as well as a “more respectful” position from the Etecsa management.

In the letter, officials who participated in the previous day’s Round Table are accused of “lack of technical rigor in explanations”

In the letter, officials who participated in the previous day’s State TV Round Table program are accused of “lack of technical rigor in explanations” by presenting contradictory graphs on the average consumption of internet data. Although they accept that there is a “cruel impact of the blockade”** and an “urgent need for foreign exchange,” they denounce that “unacceptable inequalities are being generated in a socialist system,” arguing that there can be no privileges for the teaching community. “If the internet should ’prioritize sectors that support the country’s development’, this restriction limits that goal,” they claim.

The letter contains strong criticism of Etecsa, which they accuse of contradicting itself and taking insufficient measures, such as allowing university students to buy two bonuses at the most basic level and hiding the exchange rate used for extra packages, even though it’s obviously the informal rate, plus an abusive lack of transparency. “It is not correct nor is it revolutionary practice to give us news of an immediate implementation without any capacity for reaction or preparation,” they say.

The FEU and the UJC [Young Communist Leagues] launch a battery of proposals to make the borrowing of foreign currency compatible by reducing the damage to the population, including plans segmented by applications, night bonuses for downloads and the extension of benefits designed for students to other sectors, such as professionals and vulnerable groups. “The official solutions have not lived up to the popular demand. They have had disrespectful positions,” they say.

Some official channels and people related to the regime, including the organizer of the El Vedado gas stations and the social group Gente de Barrio organized by Pedro Garcés, have claimed that there are communiqués circulating from several universities “that are false [and] seek to alter the state of opinion and give a general character to this call from the students.” However, the CUJAE letter is not only real and can be downloaded in pdf from the Telegram channel AlmaCujae, but it is also confirmed in another publication of the organization in which Cibercuba is accused of manipulating the news by illustrating it with a photo showing a crowd of students.

Anti-government graffiti this Tuesday at the University of Sancti Spíritus. / networks

“That photo is taken from the start of the course at which Buena Fe was giving a welcome concert,” says the post, despite the fact that the independent media indicates it in the caption. The content of the article, however, is not questionable or slanted.

The FEU of the UH has expressed its opposition, warning that it is in favor of creating a “multidisciplinary group to work with Etecsa” and that it supports the students, but rejects ” media manipulation [and] attempts to alter the normality of university life. We stress the need to respect the importance of the educational teaching process in the current context. The FEU is and will remain revolutionary”, it stressed.

But the fracture is visible in the announcement of the same organization in the Cujae, which uses an energetic and forceful tone against the forms and decisions that, although they have been announced by the company, were taken by the government, As evidenced by the interventions of the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, and senior officials of the Ministry of Communications. Miguel Díaz-Canel himself has expressed his support for the measures taken “in view of the urgent need to maintain and develop an essential service,” and he has promised to explain them better in his podcast Desde la presidencia, which is usually presented on Thursdays every two weeks. However, all indications are that it could be advanced to tomorrow.

The tension is high, even though last night Deputy Prime Minister Eduardo Martínez Díaz appeared on television for another tedious Round Table in which he insisted on exactly the same thing that had been said 24 hours before. “These limitations, although painful, are temporary and respond to the complex economic situation of the country,” he repeated. At about the same time, two agents of the Ministry of the Interior were zealously erasing graffiti from a wall in front of the Universidad José Martí de Sancti Spíritus: “Down with the dictatorship.”

Translator’s notes:

*’Tarif’ translates as ‘price and the ‘azo’ ending in Cuban Spanish is a ’magnifier’. Thus, in this case, the term means roughly: “the gigantic price increase thing”

**There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Delay in Asylum Procedures Limits Job Options for Cubans in Tapachula, Mexico

Yumili Acosta and Yaniel Ponce de León lost their jobs after the local government’s temporary program for migrants ended in May.

Municipal officials in Tapachula provide care for migrants / EFE

14ymedio, Angel Salinas, Mexico City, 5 June 2025 — Unemployed and unresponsive to their request for asylum, Yumili Acosta, Otmara Arencibia Bustamante and Yaniel Ponce de León hold the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (COMAR) in the border state of Chiapas responsible for lengthening the procedure and not giving them a date for obtaining asylum.

Acosta has been looking for work for five days. “The Oxxo [chain of shops open 24 hours] do not accept migrants,” says the woman who was part of the temporary program that the government of Chiapas reactivated in February to hire 500 people with paperwork at the Comar to sweep streets, collect garbage and paint public spaces.

On 30 May, Acosta received the last weekly payment of 1,250 pesos ($61.59). “There is work in the markets, but they pay 80 to 120 pesos (4 to 6 dollars) per day. It’s 10 hours with food,” he says. continue reading

Acosta is unaware of the existence of the Southern Border Commission, made up of deputies who this Wednesday made a tour of the vicinity of the Suchiate River and offered to regularize this group of people to integrate them into jobs on the southern border with Guatemala. “There are better paying jobs, but that’s for people with papers.” In the morning he went to the COMAR, where officials asked him to wait for a message.

Arencibia still hasn’t received the notice to go to the COMAR headquarters in the Fraccionamiento Las Vegas, in Tapachula, to make a video to complete his regularization process. Last week was critical for his health.

The legal appeal that he filed last May with the COMAR to justify asylum, says Arencibia, allowed him access to the offices and a staff member to take care of his case, but “the process has stopped, and they aren’t telling me why”.

Tour by members of the Southern Border Commission, composed of deputies from the vicinity of the Suchiate River / Secretariat of the Southern Border

Yaniel Ponce de León, another of the Cubans who saw his American dream truncated with the arrival of Donald Trump to the US presidency, tells 14ymedio that it is stressful to be stopped by the police to review your temporary CURP (unique population registration key), which is granted upon the initiation of proceedings in the COMAR.

“If you forget the document, they take you to immigration prison, and there you can be incommunicado for a week,” he says, referring to the immigration stations. “I complied with the eight requests for care they asked me to sign; I was part of the temporary project that gave work to migrants; I rented a room; I had no problems. But that is not enough for them to grant me asylum.”

In April, the municipal president of Tapachula, in Chiapas, Aaron Yamil Melgar Bravo, proposed that migrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti who are stranded in the municipality could be used in different construction projects for the Maya Train, the Interoceanic Corridor and the factories. No agreement has been reached so far.

“I asked if there was work on the train construction in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but they told me that they didn’t need people for now,” says Ponce de León.

Between February and March, the state of Chiapas promoted two temporary employment programs for migrants. There were 890 places opened during this period. The most recent is for fumigators to stop the spread of diseases such as dengue, malaria, zika and chikungunya.

Each of the 390 migrants is paid a salary of just over 2,300 pesos every two weeks, which is less than the average wage of 3,350 pesos for a worker. Also, they do not have medical services or other benefits stipulated in the Federal Labor Law such as the payment of benefits, a savings fund, ration vouchers and food.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Mexico Spent $22 Million on Printing Textbooks for Cuba

The financing of 15 million copies makes the López Obrador government “committed to indoctrination,” Omara Ruiz Urquiola tells El Universal.

The books went to Cuba from Mexico in 10 boat trips / TVYumurí

14ymedio, Madrid, 6 June 2025 — Much has been said about the more than $23 million that the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador invested in hiring 610 Cuban doctors, a process full of irregularities but widely monitored and publicized by the local and independent press in Cuba. Now, it has been discovered that the former Mexican president spent almost as much of the state’s coffers on printing Cuban textbooks.

According to an investigation by Mexicans against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), reported on Thursday by the newspaper El Universal, the amount spent for this purpose between 2023 and 2024 amounts to 22 million dollars. The process involved three Mexican public entities, which were responsible for financing, printing and distributing the texts that were then used by students at almost all educational levels on the island: early childhood, primary, secondary school, pre-university and special education.

The National Commission for Free Textbooks (Conaliteg), belonging to the Public Education Secretariat, commissioned the work of the Progreso Printer and Binder (Iepsa), based in Iztapalapa, whose majority partner is the State. Once the books were ready, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handled the shipping from the port of Veracruz to Cuba.

Three Mexican public entities participated in the process, which were responsible for financing, printing and distributing the texts that were then used by students of almost all educational levels on the island

In total, 15 million copies were sent which, according to the MCCI – in collaboration with the Academic Freedom Observatory, headed by the Cuban opponent Omara Ruiz Urquiola and based in Colombia – have, as required, this information on the legal page of the books.

For the investigation, a copy of two contracts was also obtained from Conaliteg with the company Iepsa, one of them dated in August 2023 for printing 5,200,000 books, and another in July 2024 for 9,600,000. The total amount is 387,455,000 pesos ($22 million at the exchange rate of those dates). continue reading

“As a result of the cooperation between Mexico and the Republic of Cuba, said country requested our support to print school books because of the lack of materials and technological resources,” says the first contract. It makes clear that the Cuban Ministry of Education asked for help from the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation for Development (Amexcid), which belongs to the Foreign Ministry.

The Foreign Ministry then managed the printing of the 268 titles requested, which were paid by Mexico, as stated in the contract, at the request of the Cuban government. To complement the investigation, documents were requested from the Customs Office attesting to 10 shipments by sea with loads that total, between 2023 and 2024, 14,940,578 copies, slightly above the amount set by contract (14,861,861).

By date, five shipments were made between September 14 and 28, 2023, and two others on October 18 and 20 respectively. According to Veritrade records, a value of less than one cent per copy was reported, although the cost of production would be 24 pesos on average ($1.35 at 2023 exchange rate).

The following year, 2024, two shipments were made in August (6 and 19) and one on September 10. In these shipments, the cost reported at customs did correspond to production costs, averaging $1.2 million.

The following year, 2024, two shipments were made in August (6 and 19) and one on September 10. In those shipments, the cost reported at customs did correspond to the production cost, averaging $1.2 million

Exports were made through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and sent to the Cuban Editorial Pueblo y Educación. Since Mexico was only in charge of printing, the books are produced by Havana; therefore, the contents have the ideological bias that can be expected.

El Universal describes what is not unknown to Cubans. References to the “persecution” and “blockade” of the US abound in various subjects, although especially in books on Moral Education and Citizenship. Interviewed by the newspaper, Ruiz Irquiola says that this turns the Mexican government into a “participant in indoctrination”.

The Mexican newspaper recalls that the López Obrador administration argued “humanitarian reasons” to multiply its support for Cuba, a policy that his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, seems determined to maintain. Despite the 610 professionals who arrived from Cuba, the population of Mexico without access to health services doubled, according to a report by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL).

To this support should be added the supply of oil, worth close to 900 million dollars, that the government of López Obrador sent to Cuba in 2023 and 2024.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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