14ymedio – Translating Cuba

Cuban Rapper Maykel ‘Osorbo’ Has Spent Four Days in a Punishment Cell

The artist had a dispute with a State Security agent last Thursday and lost the right to a visit.

Maykel Castillo in an image posted by Anamely Ramos. / Facebook

14ymedio, Madrid, 28 April 2025 — Maykel Castillo ‘Osorbo’ has been in a punishment cell at Kilo 5.5 in Pinar del Río Provincial Prison for four days today. Curator Anamelys Ramos announced the news on Saturday and reported yesterday, Sunday, that she had received information from inside the prison that the political prisoner might be on strike.

“Maykel already had a virus before entering the cell, and if he’s in a state of isolation, his body will weaken faster than normal. If you want things to calm down, don’t keep pushing people to the limit,” the activist posted on her Facebook account, where she has been offering updates on the artist’s situation.

According to Ramos, last Thursday, Maykel Castillo had an argument with a State Security agent during a scheduled visit, which was suspended and should be reinstated, the curator claims. From her account, it can be inferred that the political prisoner confronted the official in response to his “provocations.”

“Regarding Maykel’s ’indiscipline’: They have been provoking Maykel to act violently for months. They have also been insisting for months that Maykel is misbehaving. They want to convince those close to him, and everyone else, that the blame for what is happening to Maykel, and therefore also this punishment, lies with him,” she wrote this Sunday. continue reading

“On Maykel’s ’indiscipline’: They’ve been provoking Maykel to act violently for months. They’ve also been insisting that Maykel is misbehaving for months.”

The activist warns State Security that the artist’s reputation precedes him. “Here we all know who Maykel is, and we also know who you are. No one will ever believe you’re innocent, so you’d better give up now. You’re late rewriting history. Maykel is in prison for nothing. Maykel is the one enduring constant humiliation and violence for making a song, in a filthy prison where there’s not even running water in the bathrooms. Before being sent to a prison for adults, Maykel was imprisoned in Combinadito and grew up learning that YOU ARE THE ENEMY (sic), something the Cuban people have also learned at the cost of much pain and misery,” she emphasizes.

Ramos demands that Castillo be able to make the phone call this Monday to which he should be entitled—if he’s not in isolation—to further confirm his condition. “To know that Maykel is okay, I only believe it on hearing his voice on a call. If it’s a lie that Maykel is plantado*, if it’s a lie that you’re plotting to open a new case against him, then let Maykel himself tell me,” she demands.

Just a few weeks ago, authorities denied Castillo—recognized by Amnesty International as a Prisoner of Conscience—the right to attend the funeral of his grandmother, Hilda Rojas Mora, who died on March 31 at the age of 85. Officials argued that regulations did not allow such a benefit for relatives with that degree of kinship.

“To the two soldiers who came here to offer their condolences, don’t feel sorry for me. Nothing hurts you, you’re not consistent people. Stop the nonsense, because the rules, what rules? You violate all the rules, you’ve violated them with me from beginning to end. I have dignity, I have plenty of dignity. How many people haven’t you sent to punch me, and I’ve gotten up? How many people haven’t you sent to beat me up, and I’ve gotten up? I’ll always get up. You didn’t take me, it doesn’t matter; my grandmother knows I love her. But if you came here thinking that when you gave me the news you were going to take me somewhere, you’re crazy. You take one of these brats, but me… If to take me somewhere you have to move half the country,” the artist said in an audio recording.

“You violate all the rules, you have violated me from beginning to end. I have dignity, I have plenty of dignity.

Osorbo, one of the authors of the song “Patria y Vida” (winner of two Latin Grammys), has been serving a nine-year prison sentence for contempt, assault, public disorder, and “defamation of institutions and organizations, heroes, and martyrs” since May 2022, although he had already spent 13 months in prison—since April 2021—which are being discounted from his sentence. In the same trial, artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was sentenced to five years.

Since then, Castillo has suffered countless punishments and health problems, and although it has been mentioned on several occasions that he could reach an agreement to leave prison in exchange for forced exile—he himself has expressed openness to the option—the fact has remained a rumor.

And although it was hoped that he would benefit from the releases made by the government as a “gesture for the Jubilee Year” decreed by the late Pope Francis, Osorbo remained among the thousand political prisoners—some of them emblematic—who remain behind bars, frequently subjected to mistreatment and humiliation. He currently has five years left on his sentence.

*Translator’s note: “Plantado’ — literally ’planted’ — is a term with a long history in Cuba and is used to describe a political prisoner who refuses to cooperate in any way with their incarceration.

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At the Pediatric Hospital in Matanzas, Cuba, Families Must Bring Everything From Syringes to Medications

The lack of cleaning staff is another problem that is severely affecting the health center.

There are barely enough seats, so many remain standing. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, 28 April 2025 — The medical care received at the Matanzas Children’s Hospital is directly proportional to the amount of resources the family brings. A heavy bag of supplies, gifts, and snacks, the patient is more likely to complete treatment, successfully overcome an emergency, and fully recover. A meager or empty bag predicts a worse outcome, as those who visit the health center every day know.

The scene in the ground-floor lounge of the Eliseo Noel Caamaño Provincial Pediatric Teaching Hospital on Friday morning was similar to any other day. Parents held their young children while waiting to be seen. There were barely enough seats, so many remained standing, waiting for a healthcare professional to appear from a hallway or at the door of an office.

Hanging from the shoulders of many of the waiting adults was a bag or a heavy backpack. Inside, there were all kinds of medical supplies, as well as food. Gauze, syringes, suture thread, sterile cotton, and alcohol for cleaning a wound shared space with ham and cheese sandwiches or canned soft drinks. “It’s no longer enough to bring food to the doctors; now you also have to carry the medications,” warned Yudith, a mother who was lucky enough to get a chair to sit next to her baby.

With a daughter who suffers from a chronic, hereditary illness, the woman has already stocked up on a first-aid kit with the medications and supplies needed for her little one’s treatment. “I’ve had to quickly become an expert and get the whole family involved in getting what my daughter needs,” she explains to 14ymedio. “I’m coming with everything so I don’t delay the treatment and so they don’t offer me excuses and 1 have to come back another day.”

As in the film The Oil of Life, where a child develops a disease so rare that his father must research the condition and find the relief himself, Cuban families have also had to train in all kinds of health issues in the face of the crisis hitting Public Health on the Island. Some have learned to give injections, immobilize an arm after a fracture due to the lack of a cast in continue reading

hospitals, and some have become true experts in the medications their little one needs.

“The specialists themselves say that all they can do is give a diagnosis,” Yudith explains. After learning the name of her daughter’s condition, the mother launched a frantic search for information and resources. Her family, the black market, and personal connections in the healthcare sector paid off. Within a few months, she had the treatment kit and even a second opinion on her daughter’s case, sent to her by a cousin who works as a doctor in Miami.

Dust in the waiting room of the children’s hospital covers the walls, windows, and floor; the bathrooms stink and barely flush. / 14ymedio

But there are things that cannot be replaced with resources or personal relationships. Dust in the waiting room of the pediatric hospital covers the walls, windows, and floor; the bathrooms stink and barely flush. The lack of cleaning staff is one of the problems that most affects the Cuban healthcare system, given that low wages and harsh working conditions discourage potential employees. To alleviate the situation, the government sends common-law prisoners to maintain hospital hygiene, but the supplies they have hinder their performance.

Near Yudith this Friday, a young couple was also waiting to enter a doctor’s office. They weren’t carrying any bags or backpacks, which was a bad sign. “My child has had a high fever for several hours. The pediatrician recommended giving him acetaminophen to lower his temperature, but the bad news is that the medication is out of stock,” the mother said. After hours of waiting and seeing that the pediatrician wouldn’t come up with the drug, the father decided to go to a nearby neighborhood to buy it on the black market.

For others, immersing themselves in the informal buying and selling industry isn’t enough to get what they need. “My daughter needs thyroid surgery, but, believe it or not, there aren’t even disposable gloves in this hospital’s operating room,” Tamara explained. “When the doctor told me that, apart from the anesthesia, I had to take care of everything else, I couldn’t believe it.” Due to a lack of resources, the surgery has been postponed several times, and the family fears that the delay will cause irreversible damage to the child.

More and more Cuban parents are turning to social media, desperate for relief for their children’s health problems. Fundraisers, donations of medicines, and applications for humanitarian visas to seek care in another country are becoming more frequent. From blindly trusting the Public Health system, many have gone on to fear for their children’s lives due to the debacle of materials and specialized personnel suffered by hospitals.

“It’s not just the medications or supplies; a doctor tells you your child has a particular disease, and it’s very difficult to get a second opinion because that’s the doctor you’re assigned to because of the bureaucracy. Going to another hospital, moving to another province for a consultation, that’s something only patients with a lot of money or leverage can do,” Tamara complains. Her dream is to be able to get her daughter out of the country and “have surgery abroad, in a clean, well-resourced place.”

“I joined several Telegram groups where they sell medicine, and I quickly found someone who had some of what I needed.”

For the time being, the family sees no possibility of leaving the island, so the mother has been searching for what she needs for the operation. “I joined several Telegram groups where they sell medicine, and I quickly found someone who has some of what I need.” After purchasing sterile water for the injections, syringes, scalpels, and adhesive tape, she now needs to acquire a blood donation, which is essential for authorization of the procedure and which currently costs up to 5,000 pesos on the informal market in Matanzas.

Once she has everything, Tamara will return to the pediatric ward, but this time with a full bag, a sign that she has secured not only the resources for the surgery but also the corresponding gifts and snacks for the medical staff. But she may still encounter another obstacle: the operating room may be closed due to a technical problem or the presence of a dangerous bacteria that they haven’t been able to eradicate. To overcome this difficulty, she’ll have to arm herself with another, heavier bag, full of patience.

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Shakespeare’s Light Shines in a Havana Theatre in the Midst of Power Cuts

In order to understand all the references you’d need an extensive knowledge of William Shakespeare. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 6 April 2025 – When actor David Reyes, playing the role of Shakespeare, throws into the air the sheets of paper on which he has written his works, whilst Francis Ruiz, holding onto the lectern in the role of Shek, has at his feet the scull of Yorick, any experienced spectator might suspect that ‘Shakes’ runs the risk of being accused of being theatre about theatre.

This show, at the Bertolt Brecht Cultural Centre in Havana’s El Vedado district, is the sixth play by writer Reinaldo Montero that Sahily Moreda, director of the Cuartel Company, has brought to the stage over the last ten years.

If the audience reads the programme before the performance they’ll think they’ll be watching a strictly political play which criticises censorship and which shows the dilemmas that producers have with either needing to please those in power or to say what they need to say. A dilemma that is as current as it is difficult to tackle in today’s Cuba.

The presentation of this well-constructed piece is a relief and it encourages us to go back to the texts to find answers to the questions that it leaves us.

But ’Shakes’ seems to travel a different path. It’s not that the programme lies, but that the work is more demanding of its audience. In order to understand all the references you’d need an extensive knowledge of William Shakespeare. Those who have wide knowledge of the English playwright’s catalogue will be able to enjoy all the allusions to his works and laugh along with every knowing wink that the actors make towards his multiple themes.

The piece is a deep immersion into the Shakespearean world and the social and political setting through which he gave form to his characters, embracing also the pressures which the actor and poet himself endured. The play, directed by Moreda is the third in a tetralogy written by Moreno. The first was ’Liz’, which premiered in Havana in 2008, followed by ’Robin’, with the final part being ’Macbeth 2.0’. The enjoyment of all four parts could help in the understanding of each separate one.

But beyond mere comprehension, ’Shakes’ is enjoyable. In a city hit by power cuts and the difficulties of moving from one place to another, the presentation of this well-constructed piece is a relief and it encourages us to go back to the texts to find answers to the questions that it leaves us. I admit that I only went along to the Bertolt Brecht to escape a power cut where I live, but I came out recharged and illuminated.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Difficult Times For Journalism or a Moment for Growth?

Voice of America is one of the media outlets affected by the USAID shutdown. / VOA

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, 22 March 2025 — Things are bad for the press when newspapers themselves become the protagonists of the daily news. In recent weeks, we’ve witnessed an avalanche of headlines about funding cuts to many of the media outlets in Latin America that have gained audiences and prestige for their reporting. The paralyzation of activities by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has put in check the work of thousands of reporters, editors, and audiovisual professionals throughout the region.

From El Salvador to Mexico to Cuba, the front pages of numerous newspapers have come to a virtual standstill due to a lack of resources to carry out their work. But tearing one’s clothes serves little purpose in the current situation. The scenario could, however, be more fertile than it appears at first glance. It is crises and moments of greatest danger that often give rise to the most lasting solutions. One of the lessons we must learn from this situation is precisely that relying on a single source of funding condemns the press to collapse when that patron or donor turns off the tap.

The need to diversify income should be a priority for any newsroom. Advertisements, membership programs, sponsorships, and agreements with entities such as universities, foundations, and international organizations could help reduce dependence on budgetary allocations that are at the mercy of the decisions, sympathies and antipathies of the current leader. If we don’t broaden the spectrum of financial sources, journalists risk having our reporting cut short by a slashing of resources in a president’s office. Relying primarily on one source of income is irresponsible and dangerous.

The paralyzation of activities by the USAID has put in check the work of thousands of reporters, editors, and audiovisual professionals in Latin America.

Now, when many reporters are left without a salary to pay their bills and support their families, it is worth asking how the Latin American press has failed by failing to create a more diverse and solid financial ecosystem. Beyond criticizing the current US administration and tearing our hair out over the end of certain budgets, we need to reflect on how we have failed our journalists and our audience by depending so exclusively on a single source of income.

Every crisis forces us to grow, and this one will be no exception. The press will emerge from the current slump strengthened and improved. Dreams will likely have to be scaled back, projects will be canceled, staff will be cut, and the update frequency will slow on many digital sites. But the media outlets affected today will also mature and understand a hard lesson: the press cannot operate with its back to corporate management. Producing dividends to sustain part of its work must be among those premises carved in stone in every newsroom, along with the need to verify sources, to have truth and accuracy as our true north, and to commit to the constant pursuit of professionalism and to the information service to society.

This doesn’t mean we have to become bankers or brokers; it means we understand, in its proper measure and importance, that the health of our coffers is just as important as the quality of our publications.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Deutsche Welle in Spanish.

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With the Murder of Two Women in Granma and Santiago De Cuba, There Have Already Been 12 Femicides in Cuba This Year

The killer of Daimi Tamayo Milan was found dead and that of Melissa Castillo remains at large. / Facebook

14ymedio, Havana, 27 April 2025 — The femicides of Daimi Tamayo Milán in Granma and Melissa Castillo in Santiago de Cuba, between last Wednesday and Friday, have shocked their communities and raised the tone of popular demands for greater criminal punishment to curb gender-based violence in Cuba. The alleged murderer of the former has been found dead, while the latter has not been arrested, according to several reports.

Tamayo Milán was murdered last Friday in the Granma municipality of Bartolomé Masó, allegedly by her ex-husband, identified as Yordan, who struck her several times with a machete. According to reports, the man had previously threatened to kill the victim and their daughter. According to information published by La Tijera, the attacker entered the woman’s home and fled after committing the attack.

“Yordan took his own life, presumably by poisoning. He preferred to flee earthly punishment and face divine justice.”

Tamayo Milán’s family is keeping her 10-year-old daughter in a safe place, the newspaper added. The funeral took place this Saturday.

This Sunday, independent journalist Guillermo Rodríguez Sánchez confirmed on social media that the attacker was found dead.

“Yordan took his own life, presumably by poisoning. He preferred to flee earthly punishment and face divine justice. Our condolences go out to the family of that girl on both sides; ultimately, it is the child who in just three days has been orphaned by both mother and father,” Rodríguez wrote. continue reading

Last Wednesday, Melissa Castillo was attacked by her ex-partner, with whom she had two children, in building 25 of the Micro III neighborhood in Salao, Santiago de Cuba. According to information provided by journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on social media, the victim’s uncle and current partner were also injured in the attack.

Both people were hospitalized due to the severity of the injuries caused by the assailant, a Guantánamo native, whose identity was not released.

For Alas Tensas, the existing legal measures on the island show “a significant gap between public policies and real-life experiences.”

With the femicides of Daimi Tamayo Milán and Melissa Castillo, the number of victims of gender-based violence reaches 12 this year, according to the database maintained by 14ymedio. By province, there were two femicides in Holguín, two in Havana, one in Camagüey, one in Artemisa, one each in Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas, and Granma, and three in Ciego de Ávila. To date, the platforms Yo sí te creo and Alas Tensas have not provided reports on the most recent cases.

However, both platforms have previously expressed the need for harsher penalties for abusers and better protection programs for victims. For Alas Tensas, the existing legal measures on the island show “a significant gap between public policies and the real experiences” of women on the streets and in their homes.

“The discrepancy between official statistics alone and reports from independent organizations is remarkable. The Alas Tensas Gender Observatory and Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba have documented 274 femicides from 2019 to April 2025.”

Gender violence, the feminist platform emphasized, remains “a complex and structural problem.”

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With the Blackout, the Streets of Matanzas, Cuba, Become Illegal Racetracks

According to Girón, young people race for “pleasure, money, and just for the show.”

Due to their fragility, motorcycles are the most at risk in an impact with a larger vehicle. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 26 April 2025 — “Fast, furious, and dangerous” is how the newspaper Girón describes the illegal bikers who engage in dizzying races on the Matanzas viaduct, just a few meters above the sea. It is a kind of extreme sport that young people, both drivers and spectators, enjoy during the long nights when the power is out.

Jéssica Acevedo, a journalist for TV Yumurí and institutional communicator for the Matanzas Prosecutor’s Office, published an article this Saturday with a dual purpose: to chronicle one of these races and to warn its participants that the official press is watching them.

According to Acevedo, motorcyclists launch themselves across the viaduct in a “hysterical race,” crouching down against the vehicles to increase their speed, and they enjoy the blackout, adding to the danger. They race, she says, for “pleasure, money, and the sheer spectacle.”

Their trajectory disregards roads or pedestrian walkways, she warns. And while it is true that the pitch-black nights experienced in Matanzas—and the rest of the country—are the favorite setting, races also take place during the day. Nor do they exclusively take place on the viaduct. Acevedo claims to have witnessed similar spectacles, in recent months, “on many streets in Matanzas.”

The race is over short distances, on quiet streets and “trying to avoid the police by all means”

The race is over short distances, on quiet streets, and “trying to avoid the police by all means.” Their aspiration is to race “in the purest Fast and Furious style.” The comparison isn’t entirely accurate, since in that film continue reading

series, modern cars, powered by powerful fuels, travel from parking lots to rooftops, while modest and sometimes rickety Cuban motorcycles advance amidst a now-normalized fuel crisis.

Acevedo attributes a Freudian explanation to this behavior: young people from Matanzas satisfy their “need to excel” with adrenaline; they want “a good sum of money” and “to satisfy their ego.” She ignores, however, the situation: stifling—and boring—blackout nights, where even with electricity, there are no suitable entertainment options.

She adds, however, that those who ride motorcycles do so without adequate protective equipment, on vehicles that are not in perfect condition, and without considering one of the scourges that causes the most deaths in Cuba: crashes.

Due to their fragility, it is precisely the motorcycles and their drivers that are the most at risk in a collision with a larger vehicle. This is demonstrated by a crash that occurred this Wednesday in Santiago de Cuba, which resulted in the deaths of two people.

The deceased—the driver and passenger of the motorcycle—collided with a Yutong bus on the Central Highway, in the town known as Cruce de Lajas, between the municipalities of Contramaestre and Palma Soriano. The crash was reported by the Facebook group Accidentes, Buses & Camiones [Accidents, Buses & Trucks], which routinely publishes information about these types of incidents, long before the official press reports them—if at all.

The victims lived in Cruce de Lajas and another nearby town, Laguna Blanca. Their names have also been withheld, although some readers of the publication have identified them as “Ernesto, son of Sucel Ramos” and “Nolberto,” without last names.

Last March, also in Santiago de Cuba, three people died and one was injured in another accident involving two motorcycles.

Last March, also in Santiago de Cuba, three people died and one was injured in another crash involving two motorcycles—one electric and one combustion engine. According to reports from a Facebook profile close to the government, the collision occurred between the electric motorcycle, carrying three people, and a motorcycle with license plate P 31493.

The deceased were identified as Félix Sandi Ortiz, 39, the driver of the motorcycle; Darilen Gonce Salas, 20, of Princesa Street 359; and Leonel Bell Bravo, 22, the driver of the Jawa gasoline vehicle. Víctor Ernesto Baibir, 29, who was also riding the electric motorcycle, survived the accident.

Motorcycles are increasingly involved in traffic crashes in Cuba. The country recorded a total of 7,507 traffic crashes in 2024, according to authorities. Among the main causes of crashes on Cuban roads, are cited lack of attention to vehicle control—in 30% of cases—and failure to grant the right of way (29.9%). Rarely mentioned is the condition of the roads and almost never mentioned is power outages.

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Street Vendors Keep Havana’s Dilapidated San Lázaro Street Alive

In the midst of the ruins, the constant shouting of a seller seemed to awaken a neighborhood where the crisis has imposed a slumber.

The veins are visible in the seller’s neck and the youthfulness in his figure. / 14ymedio

Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 28 April 2025– How alive or dead is a street? Is it the ruins, the shells of houses barely standing, and the decrepit facades that define the throb of a thoroughfare; or, in reality, is its death certificate only the signature of the lack of traffic, of street vendors, and of shouts from balcony to balcony. If it is the latter, it can be said that the central San Lázaro Avenue in Central Havana has not yet been buried because it still breathes.

This Monday morning, a young man placed his cart right in front of a building with windows boarded up due to a collapse. Life and obsolescence just a few meters away. A few ripe banana trees here, a balcony about to collapse there; tomatoes with their skins gleaming in the sun on this sidewalk, a column cracked from top to bottom on the other. Amid the ruins, the merchant’s constant shouting seemed to awaken a neighborhood where the crisis has imposed a slumber.

The mango, with its season just starting this year, contributes to that sense of resurrection.

The mango, with its season just starting this year, contributes to that sense of resurrection. Green, plump, and ripe they peek out from the vendor’s improvised platform. The wheels supporting the platform, probably taken from some vandalized garbage container, allow the small stand to move: up San Lázaro, down San Lázaro, like blood in the arteries of an organism in intensive care, but alive. Some cucumbers add urgency because their tips continue reading

are turning yellow and the skin is beginning to look sunken in in several places. The sack, in the shade, protects the most expensive item: a pound of imported rice, which, in the Cuban capital, is now approaching 300 pesos.

The veins are visible in the vendor’s neck and the youthfulness in his figure. The pushcart vendor hawks his wares and the avenue shakes. An old woman leans out from a balcony, a neighbor opens the blinds next to a bus stop. “Come on, your papaya is here!” is heard, and it is as if the commercial defibrillator gives a few minutes of life to the avenue that connects Old Havana with Vedado, just a few seconds, but they seem eternal and enough to certify a heartbeat.

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Ecuador’s Rafael Correa Was Not Resurrected

The former president of Ecuador during an interview with the EFE agency.

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 27 April 2025 — It is more than obvious that the Ecuadorian people have given thought to what it would have meant for their country to reelect president Rafael Correa, a criminal convicted for corruption who will lament until his last day having supported Lenin Mareno in his quest toward the nation’s highest office.

This individual, newly in power, would have made a turn of the screw that would irrevocably rob them of the future, and what happens in Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela, where the Castro-Chavistas proposals have plunged those peoples into a state of moral and material prostration that is very difficult to overcome.

The populism sponsored by this autocrat is extremely dangerous because it personifies the enlightened despot who, armed with academic knowledge, uses that insight to more efficiently exploit the prerogatives of the citizenry. Correa, in my opinion, is the despot in the hemisphere who most resembles Fidel Castro, because he is an enlightened possessor of absolute truth who does not suffer the agony of doubt.

This individual, newly in power, would have made a turn of the screw that irredeemably shaped the future, as has happened in Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia y Venezuela

Subjects like Correa exercise a kind of fatal attraction over a sector of the population. They are capable of interpreting the anxieties of an important nucleus of people, who regardless the abuses and mistakes they commit, things always go in their favor. They count on a following that responds to the rhythm of their piper and revels in the vicissitudes of the abyss. continue reading

Correa, like Fidel Castro, Nicolas Maduro, Evo Morales y Daniel Ortega, to mention just a few of the caudillos of Castro-Chavista who possess a magical charm that, for their supporters, places them beyond good and evil, a reason that makes them a real danger in any democratic society.

An individual with firm democratic convictions can never agree to have their rights violated by a ruler who assumes the power to interpret the nation’s desires by creating committees of whistleblowers who scrutinize the lives of others or permits economic changes that would deepen the misery of all.

To claim that Nicolas Maduro represents a legitimate regime is an absurdity from the early days of 21st-century socialism, as when Hugo Chávez proclaimed he would lead Venezuela to the sea of Cuban happiness. Both Cuba and Venezuela are far from being a paradigm for any society, and anyone who proclaims this commits political suicide, as did candidate Luisa González.

Furthermore, the survival capacity of these individuals is unprecedented. They are capable of allying themselves with their bitter enemies in order to remain in power, as Daniel Ortega did in Nicaragua when he reached an electoral agreement that allowed him to win the presidency in 2007, or as Fidel and Raúl Castro did in Cuba, having managed to blame the US embargo for all their faults, even though they spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year in that market, while imposing a blockade on the people they misgovern that has been in place for 66 years

Correa, in my opinion, is the despot in the hemisphere who most resembles Fidel Castro, because he is an enlightened possessor of absolute truth who does not suffer the agony of doubt

It would seem that Ecuadorians have become acutely aware of reality when they realize that the election of a Correa front man would imply his return, since he would have carried out the necessary maneuvers to allow the fugitive from justice to return, just as Argentine Justicialist* leader Héctor Cámpora did in the 1970s, when upon becoming president, he eliminated all existing restrictions against Juan Domingo Perón, making it possible for him to become president.

The fugitive who lost in the polls was not candidate González. However, I do not doubt the survival capacity of these demiurges, as Anatole France would say, and as my friend Alberto Paz, a profound connoisseur of Ecuadorian and Cuban reality, has told me. He believes that Correa’s failure was a consequence of the many campaign errors of his front men, a claim echoed by some media outlets in the South American.

The thing is, these guys never lose. They accuse the winner of fraud, yet they haven’t filed a complaint backed up with sufficient evidence.

The former president has proven himself as among those who believe themselves chosen. His vision of reality only allows him to appreciate the existence of two colors, black and white, a character he manages to instill in his supporters, just as it enables his followers to seek only confrontation, the all-or-nothing attitude we experienced in Cuba when the masses demanded the firing squad without knowing why or for whom.

*Translator’s note: The Justicialist Party is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism.

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Cuba: The Price of the ‘Throne’ Goes Up!

Public baths in the Fe del Valle Park, Havana

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 21 April 2025 — On the Island, inflation does not give respite to even the most basic needs. The price for using the public restroom in the busy Parque Fe del Valle, in Centro Habana, has gone up from 10 to 20 pesos. According to one of the local workers, the National Tax Administration Office increased their tax payments and also took away the little income they received from the State. Now they must pay for everything on their own.

What used to be a quick relief is now almost a luxury, and the new tariff did not come with improvements.

The measure is already beginning to be noticed in the urban landscape. “There are now old men who, when they say 20 pesos, leave without urinating and end up behind a bush. I have seen that with my own eyes,” said a regular user of the park. The price increase not only tightens pockets but also bladders.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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With So Much Trash To Collect in Havana, No Street Sweeper Can Handle It

Without gloves and without supplies to carry out his task, he is faced with an inhumane task: saving what is the dirtiest city in Cuba.

What brought him down there wasn’t the rum or the chemical, but the excess of trash dumps in the city / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 22 April 2025 — The man was slumped on the sidewalk, in the shadow of a crumbling wall. He could have been a beggar—it’s not unusual for hunger or alcohol to bring many to the ground—but he’s a street sweeper. Beside him are the tools of his trade: two broken buckets and a broom, attached to a wheelbarrow that can’t hold another thing.

The fact that the street is littered with garbage suggests that what brought him down there wasn’t rum or el químico —the dangerous and now common Cuban street drug, an anesthetic against reality—but rather the city’s excess of trash piles. One ox can’t plow, goes the Creole saying; one street sweeper isn’t enough to combat the capital’s filth.

The complaints and protests, the calls to order, and the complaints to Municipal Services have been of no avail. The street sweeper, without gloves to operate, without supplies to carry out his task, is faced with an inhumane task: saving what is the dirtiest city in Cuba.

So the man, dressed and shod in rags, seeks respite in the shade from the scorching Creole sun and the no less torturous stretch of city he must overcome. Cars with state-issued license plates pass by him with their usual indifference. On the corner, there’s a food stand, also not free from dirt.

A short distance from the “fallen” dump, a grotesque ‘landfill’ continues to challenge passersby and hinder traffic / 14ymedio

In a little while, he’ll be walking again, barely recovered, to continue “in the little fight,” a diminutive that doesn’t soften the mountains he’ll literally continue reading

encounter in his path. In Key West, Central Havana, a short distance from the “fallen man,” a grotesque landfill continues to challenge passersby and hinder traffic.

It is the Hospital Street dumpster, ironic not only because of the name of the street on which it’s located, but also because of its resistance to any sort of cleanup. What person, armed only with a broom and two buckets, could have dealt with such a prodigious accumulation of paper, shells, bags, excrement, and liquids?

The only ones who dare to launch expeditions to such dumps are the divers, dressed and armed with the same precariousness as the street sweepers, who try to make a virtue out of necessity, or if not a virtue, at least food and raw materials. In exchange for a few kilos, the State will pay the divers—usually elderly or needy—for any useful “treasures” they find. This is the closest it has come to taking any real measure in favor of street hygiene.

Even the official press knows that the situation is completely out of control. Reporters financed by the Communist Party have been unable to hide their disgust at the garbage dumps multiplying in almost every corner of the country.

Some—like the author of an article published this Tuesday on the Matanzas radio station’s website—are crying out for a solution. However, they continue to attribute the rot to a source as remote as Washington. “The blockade exists and affects every sphere of Cuban society, and that’s something we have to live with, at least for the moment,” the journalist asserted.

With a photo of a sato dog also collapsed—in exactly the same position as the Havana street sweeper—on a garbage dump in Matanzas, the article lists the dirtiest municipalities: Matanzas, Cárdenas, Colón, Perico, Jagüey Grande, and Jovellanos.

The number of MSMEs approved by the State has been directly proportional to the growth of landfills.

It refers to a provincial government meeting where the conclusion was that, precisely in those areas, the number of MSMEs approved by the State has been directly proportional to the growth of dump sites. This isn’t the first time the “new enemy” of hygiene has been singled out, but without stating what the authorities will do with the existing garbage.

Where do the “almost 1,000 liters of fuel distributed daily in Matanzas”—or in the rest of the provinces—end up, according to Radio 26 ? The station doesn’t explain.

Nor does Trabajadores —another of the official newspapers that have commented on the garbage crisis that month—explain what Havana will do to contain a reality that has disfigured, in its own words, a “clean city” in a matter of years.

“Raising social awareness” is the only solution the regime offers. But what conscience—social, personal, or of any kind—can remain for a man who, face to face with the landfill, collapses in the face of a seemingly impossible mission.

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‘El Químico’ Is No Longer Just for Poor People in Cuba

A young doctor tells ’14ymedio’ that among his colleagues “there are many hooked” on this cheap and highly addictive drug.

Hospital Calixto García, in Havana / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, havana, 21 April 2025 — “Time of death 2:32 in the morning, cause: cardiac arrest,” summarizes the death certificate of a young man from Havana, 28, who died earlier this year in the emergency room of the Calixto García, in Havana. The small print, however, hides a much more dramatic story of addiction, drug use and meager resources in the Cuban health system, faced with the spread of “el químico” [the chemical].

“I was on duty that night, and when he arrived I thought he had an asthma attack,” recalls Marieta, a nurse at the hospital center whose name has been changed for this story. “He came with two friends after midnight on a Saturday, which is usually a time with many cases of knife wounds, cuts from bottles thrown at some party and also injuries from domestic altercations,” she says.

When she graduated, two decades ago, Marieta remembers that on weekends in the emergency room of the central hospital, a few meters from 23rd street with its clubs, bars and recreational centers, most of the emergencies were from “alcohol and fights.” The newly recruited doctors and nurses received the hardest shifts. In those long hours of late Saturday and Sunday, they learned very well to “sew heads and knife wounds while the patient’s foul smell of rum almost asphyxiated us,” she recalls.

“More and more cases arrive of people intoxicated with drugs”

However, for some time now the uninvited guest of the night has changed. “More and more cases arrive of people intoxicated with drugs, especially the “chemical,” but in recent months we have treated cases of all kinds of drug mixtures,” she explains to 14ymedio. One of the serious problems faced by health professionals who assist these patients is the lack of information about what has happened to them.

“We know an accident victim has been run over by a car or hit by a motorcycle, because the people who brought him tell us and give us the details, but with drug addicts it doesn’t happen,” she says. “People have left them lying on the entrance ramp and run away so they don’t show their faces. Others come accompanied by friends, but these people don’t talk. They won’t tell us what happened or just say that the person started feeling bad.”

Not only do you see the progression of drug addiction among patients treated in the emergency room. The medical sector itself is also being rocked by the chemical, which is currently sold in Havana at a price ranging from 150 to 200 pesos per dose. A pound of beans costs more than one of those little pieces of paper that envelop the substance for its illicit trade. In a country where commodities are on the rise, this drug is still surprisingly cheap.

A young doctor tells this newspaper that among his colleagues “there are many who are hooked” on the addictive mixture. “It comes from the bad neighborhoods,” he warns. “My girlfriend and several friends in the healthcare profession are consuming it in an uncontrolled way; it is no longer just something for poor people.”

Among their most complicated cases are those who have recently come in with serious breathing problems and heart failure after having consumed the ’chemical’

In the emergency room, a police officer takes note of patients arriving with knife wounds, gunshots or signs of violence, but the protocol for drug users who arrive in bad shape “is not so clear,” says the woman. “If it is a slight intoxication, the doctor himself doesn’t want to report it so as not to get into trouble with the patient, but there are some who arrive in an obviously very high state, and there is no way to hide it.”

Among their more complicated cases are those who come in with serious breathing problems and heart failure after having consumed the chemical, the most popular drug right now in Havana. With a formula that may vary depending on who prepares it, its base is synthetic marijuana mixed with drugs, some intended for the treatment of epilepsy, tranquilizers for animals or compounds used in surgery. Once hooked, addicts try other very risky combinations, such as adding lidocaine, a local anesthetic that is readily available on the Island’s informal market.

“I saw a boy who was not even 18 take one of those lidocaine patches that you put, especially on your back, when you have some pain. He cut it into small pieces, ate it and immediately had neurotoxic and cardiotoxic reactions. When they brought him in, there was nothing that could be done,” he says. “They’re not just mixing the chemical with drugs that are hard to get or more expensive. Now even a less-controlled medication can be a hazard if it is consumed incorrectly or in conjunction with other substances.”

Among the products most imported by mules to the Island, protected by the exemption of tariffs on food and medicines, are not only coffee, spices and multivitamins, but also the popular lidocaine patches. In an aging population like the Cuban one, there is a wide demand. Light-weight, without customs controls and apparently harmless, in the wrong hands these patches become a danger.

In a society that is very loquacious about defining illegal phenomena, it is surprising that there is no clear term for defining the drug trafficker

“After oral ingestion, lidocaine enters the systemic circulation very quickly due to the extensive hepatic metabolism of the compound,” warns a patient from another hospital in Havana who prefers anonymity. “It begins its action very quickly, and the signs of intoxication begin to be noticed within the first 10 to 25 minutes. By the time these patients arrive at an emergency room, their clinical condition is very advanced.”

The code of silence spreads among addicts and those who accompany them to the hospitals. Describing what they consumed can draw the attention of the police, who will pressure them to report the dealer. The producers and sellers of the chemical, ambrosio* and other mixtures are mostly thugs who threaten to retaliate against the snitches and their families.

In a society that is very loquacious when it comes to defining illegal phenomena or the vagaries of the informal market, it is surprising that there is no clear term for defining the drug trafficker. This figure, who is known elsewhere with expressions ranging from the well-known “camel,” through “eraser” to the explicit “coke pusher,” has just begun in Cuba to have its own name. In a country where the illegal lottery, known as the “bolito,” has a wide range of terms, and prostitution also contains a vast vocabulary, the world of drugs, however, is more sparse. Perhaps the language has not evolved at the same speed as the spread of the chemical through the streets.

“Some say ’quimiqueros’,” advises El Pury, a resident of the Los Sitios neighborhood, who knows very well the damage that drugs are causing among the young people in his community. Proud to be”ten years clean” after spending time in the addiction ward of a psychiatric hospital, he now works as a stretcher-bearer. “I was inside the monster and I know its entrails,” he says, reinterpreting José Martí’s well-known phrase.

“I just have to see a little kid who arrives trembling, skinny because he barely eats and with skin the color of paper, and I know that it’s because of the drug,” he says. “It’s one thing to see it in the movies, or someone from abroad telling you about it, and another to experience it here.” Two weeks ago he had to carry a body from the emergency room to the morgue on a stretcher. The official cause of death was respiratory arrest, but El Pury knows that the young man died “from the shit that is killing everyone.”

*Translator’s note: Ambrosio is a mixture primarily involving drugs like Diazepam, Parkisonil, and Amitriptyline. Sprinkled with Ketamine, it is smoked in a roll or added to an alcoholic drink.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Prisoners Defenders Records 1,152 Political Prisoners in Cuban Jails in March

The regime revoked the release of a 11J prisoner for refusing to collaborate with the political police.

He explained that 33 minors remain on the list, of whom 29 are serving sentences. / EFE14ymedio, Havana, 10 April 2025 — Prisoners Defenders (PD) denounced this Thursday that the Cuban regime revoked the release of one of the 230 prisoners released after its promise to the Vatican in January to grant “gradual release with prison benefits” to 553 inmates, a process that has now been completed.

This prisoner who was re-imprisoned is Jaime Rodríguez, imprisoned during the protests of July 11, 2021. On January 18, he was released and “not even a month later”—according to Javier Larrondo, president of the PD—imprisoned once again “for refusing to collaborate as an undercover agent for State Security.”

The remaining 230, Larrondo explains, “are under house arrest, their sentences are intact, and many of them are under extremely serious restrictions on their fundamental freedoms of movement and forced labor.”

In the island’s prisons, the PD recorded 1,152 political prisoners in Cuba this March, with two more added to its registry compared to the previous month. Eight people were added to its monthly list, and another six were released after fully serving their sentence or measure.

“They are under house arrest, their sentences are intact, and they are under extremely serious conditions.”

Three of them were arrested in Villa Clara and convicted of the “increasingly common type of propaganda against the constitutional order.” Hunger, thirst, and other conditions in Cuban prisons are, PD insists, “forms of torture” for the 90,000 prisoners who remain behind bars for various crimes.

Several political prisoners have “highly worrying” health conditions, such as Yoruba priest Loreto Hernández, 53, who suffers from ischemic heart disease and hypertension, among other illnesses aggravated by malnutrition. Also mentioned are Alexander Díaz, who suffers from throat cancer and, like Hernández, is being denied parole by the regime.

Another case is that of journalist Jorge Bello, who suffers from “multiple health problems: diabetes and inflammation of the testicles.” Bello suffered a heart attack in January. Amalio Álvarez, who suffers from a psychiatric disorder and cognitive impairments—in addition to several suicide attempts—is also ineligible for release, Larrondo said.

PD maintains the 230 individuals already on its list, as their sentences have not expired. These individuals were released after Washington removed Havana from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

The Cuban government, which never publicly linked the list and the releases, announced two months later that it had successfully concluded the process. The move was described as a “fraud” by PD and criticized by several human rights NGOs, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Justice 11J, Cubalex, and the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights.

The monthly PD report identified 473 people with “serious medical conditions.”

The PD’s monthly report identified 473 people (41% of its records) with “serious medical conditions” and 40 with mental health problems, all of them “without adequate medical or psychiatric treatment.”

It explained that 33 minors remain on the list, of whom 29 are serving sentences and four are being prosecuted “with precautionary measures without any judicial protection.” The minimum age for criminal prosecution in Cuba is 16.

PD reported that its registry includes 222 people accused of sedition, when in most cases they participated in peaceful protests, adding that all of them “have already been sentenced to an average of ten years of imprisonment each” (including 15 minors). The NGO also highlighted the treatment suffered by the 121 women on its list.

Since July 2021, when the largest anti-government protests in decades took place on the island, a total of 1,821 people have been imprisoned for political reasons.

Larrondo also had a few words of solidarity for Venezuelans, who are subjected to a regime allied with Havana, and where the situation of political prisoners is similar. A total of 896 people remained deprived of their liberty in Venezuela as of last Monday, and according to the NGO Foro Penal as political prisoners, the organization reported Thursday on X.

The organization indicated that of the total detainees, 808 are men and 88 are women, including 891 adults and five adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17. Most were arrested after last July’s elections in Venezuela, in which the electoral body declared Nicolás Maduro’s victory despite accusations of “fraud” from the majority opposition.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, more than 2,400 people were arrested—of whom 2,006 have been released—for causing “violence” during the post-election protests. Both Maduro and Attorney General Tarek William Saab maintain that there are no political prisoners in the country, a position also upheld by Havana.

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The Intangible Damages of Castroism

These damages are as or more destructive than the others that make up Castroism’s tragic legacy.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo (center) died while on a hunger strike in 2010 to demand his rights; pictured receiving medical care. / UEPPC

14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Havana, 20 April 2025 — A few days ago, in a conversation with friends, we discussed how regimes of force, particularly those of a totalitarian or messianic nature, cause numerous and different types of harm to society.

We talked about those executed and killed in combat in the struggle for democracy. The hundreds of thousands who spent long years in prison, the economic destruction of our country, the general deterioration of buildings, and the millions who were forced into exile or decided to emigrate due to the catastrophic situation the dictatorship has created.

We were immersed in these aspects when my wife mentioned that, like most observers and analysts, we were referring to the human and material damage, overlooking the intangible, ignoring the fact that each of the people whose lives were changed or ended by the regime could have contributed many positive things to Cuba.

We also thought about the contributions to the Republic of the hundreds of thousands who were imprisoned and are still in Cuba.

This observation led us to address issues that some of us had never considered or had only vaguely addressed, such as the contributions to a democratic Cuba of student leaders such as Pedro Luis Boitel, who died on a hunger strike in 1972, and Porfirio Ramírez, who was shot along with four comrades in October 1960, and the civil rights activist Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who also died on a hunger strike in 2010 demanding his rights. continue reading

We also thought about the contributions to the Republic made by the hundreds of thousands who served time in political prison and are still in Cuba, such as former prisoners Guillermo Fariñas, Félix Navarro, and José Daniel Ferrer, and the many female political prisoners, such as Sayli Navarro and María Cristina Garrido, if only human dignity were fully respected in our country.

Immediately afterward, the conversation turned to the exile, the professional success of tens of thousands of compatriots, and the economic success of many more. The numerous university professors and those at other levels of education, as well as the large number of workers who perform important functions in all sectors of society, such as communications, industry, construction, and services in general.

Of course, the discussion took us to politics and the Cuban politicians involved in that activity in the United States and other countries, the numerous congressmen of Cuban origin who have served and are serving in the House of Representatives and those who have been members of the exclusive club of 100 in the United States Senate, in addition to the two Cubans who actively participated in a presidential campaign, including one who is now Secretary of State, the most important unelected position in this great country.

Speaking of the deceased, Daniel Pedreira remembered another great Cuban in American politics, Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who recently passed away.

The conversation was enriched by the mention of politicians when Luz Martínez, my wife, and Jose Antonio Albertini mentioned the recently deceased Miami City Commissioner, Manolo Reyes. We all fell silent, paying a modest tribute to a person who had earned our respect for his actions and simplicity.

Manolo Reyes was a respectable man. Cordial and sincere, and we all agree that in a “Cuba for all and for the good of all,” he would have been a very valuable source of talent for the republic. Manolo would have made an excellent public servant in any Cuban institution, and we have no doubt he would have been an invaluable mayor for the city of Miami.

Speaking of the deceased, Daniel Pedreira remembered another great Cuban figure in American politics, Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who recently passed away. A man who, like Reyes, felt a deep passion for Cuba and felt obligated to serve it in any capacity where he could develop his talents.

Unfortunately, Castro’s totalitarianism made it impossible for these two honest, hardworking men, along with others deeply committed to the community, who also disappeared, on the island or abroad, to contribute their talent and dedication to the Cuban nation. These intangible damages of Castroism are as destructive, if not more so, than the other consequences of its tragic legacy.

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The Sun of Austerlitz

Literature is duplicity: one cannot write without conversing with the evil twin, the hypothetical, the quantum double.

Star Wars mercenary Boba Fett next to a lead Napoleon, in the author’s library. / Elena Nazco

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 6 April 2025 — In Spain, I gorge myself on the childhood I had in Cuba, but especially the one I didn’t have. Tintin, Corto Maltese, The Rabbi’s Cat, tin soldiers, drawing—now with prodigious Staedtler pens that I gazed at in catalogs from the 1980s—pencils the same dark green as a figurine of Boba Fett, the intergalactic mercenary, all of that on the desk. Toys, Toblerone bars, books. It’s still a sad obsession, but how can I live without it?

In the end, we are vain, diverse, and fluctuating animals, Montaigne would say. I get excited and spend hours in toy stores, stationery stores, browsing the shelves of an antique dealer. I recognize myself in all of this, even though I never possessed it. Did its absence shape me? I wouldn’t be surprised. There are Cubans who become true Malaysian tigers when faced with a beef tenderloin, and others who would stab Willy Wonka to keep his chocolate factory. Why give up the harmless, less expensive world of paper?

I reconstruct, for my own good and that of my novels, the child I was and the one I wasn’t. Literature is duplicity. You can’t write without conversing with the evil twin, the hypothetical, the quantum double, the one waiting for us on the other side of the Time Machine. And if this reconstruction can have an anesthetic effect along the way, so much the better. continue reading

Who can forget their toys, or the things that served as toys?

Who can forget their toys, or the things that served as toys? A cigar box from which I cut out an entire paper city, which I assembled and disassembled in my living room. Some plastic soldiers from World War II—they appeared under my bed one Three Kings’ Day, a tradition that communism failed to eradicate—with binoculars and flags, rampant or rolling in the trench, belonging to imaginary states.

A pair of astronauts, with their spacecraft, armed with detectors for lunar dust, who I now remember as the forerunners of Daft Punk. (Much later, on the beaches of Valencia, I saw dozens of searchers moving their instruments on the sand, like those little figures in spacesuits.) I also had a crossbow, a bow that shot arrows, coloring books—one of them only had the frustrating silhouette of Lassie, the collie—light swords made from radio antennas, magic wands.

There were toys left behind in Cuba that I should have brought. Toys that were so old they were considered relics. An American wooden box with ten miniature bowling pins, which one could knock down with a ball hanging from a pole. The Lone Ranger, whose hat eventually became toasted in the tropical heat, harder than the Western one. To keep it covered, I put a bottle cap on it: it looked like a horseman with his charro or an Arab with his fez.

George Washington, in a blue jacket and tricorn hat—that one survived—was his unlikely expedition companion, both on horseback. There was also a clarinet, made of fine black plastic, with a small notebook of melodies. Almost everything else was lost.

At least once a year, my entire town allowed itself to indulge in toys and imaginary life.

At least once a year, my entire town indulged in toys and imaginary life. It was the month of revelry, March, although in some years it was held in August. I hated and still hate that atmosphere. At seven in the morning, the hammering and welding began. The sparks from the tips of the rods crackled on the iron frames. When everyone left, I went out to play in that rusty fortress, on top of which the carriage was built.

In none of my novels have I recreated that world, which has brought so much money to the cheap folklorists who proliferate like midges in that place. Everything frightened me. The crush of people, the glitter, the makeup, the immobility of the characters in the wings.

There were always half-naked girls – often classmates, the only incentive to go and see the float – and a voice- over narrating some corny legend: Troy: Blood and Fire, The Sun of Austerlitz, Sissi Empress, Prayer in the Desert, The King and I, Beyond the Sea , A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a thousand silly things, all financed by the exiles.

I didn’t like going out but staying in my room, knowing that all the houses in the town were going to be empty at that moment.

I didn’t like going out, but rather staying in my room, knowing that every house in town would be empty at that moment. What a wonderful feeling. I’d take out my toys, my books, whatever, and start inventing that phrase whose wickedness only a Cuban can accurately gauge. Then the firecrackers would explode, rise into the night sky, and descend like kamikazes onto the rooftops. Scared to death. My cats would protest. The neighbors’ dogs would howl.

Five in the morning. Total drunkenness, trash, urine. Toy enthusiasts—and sometimes me too—scaled and looted the float. They stole cranes, cobras, monkeys, tea and smoking tables, marvelous lamps, thrones, and dragons. Everything stuffed with Styrofoam, an entire world of Styrofoam. Everything designed to shine once and die, like naked girls, like flying cars, like the child one once was.

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Businessman Mike Fernández Questions the Silence of Cuban-American Leaders About Trump’s Immigration Policy

The Cuban-American believes that silence in the face of this situation “is not neutrality or ignorance, it is complicity and cowardice.”

Earlier this month, an unequivocal sign of this discontent surprised drivers passing under the billboard on the Palmetto Expressway in Miami. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 20 April 2025 — “Immigration policy must reflect the same compassion for those in need today that we received,” Cuban-American businessman Miguel Mike B. Fernández stated in a letter dated April 14. The pharmaceutical magnate sent the letter, criticizing Donald Trump’s immigration policy, to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Florida Congressmembers Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez, and María Elvira Salazar.

The article, published by El Nuevo Herald, emphasizes what Fernández calls “the silence of our own leaders” in the face of Washington’s “cruel stance toward immigrants.” The businessman, president of MBF Healthcare Partners, believes that the silence of Cuban-American politicians in the face of this situation “is not neutrality or ignorance, it is complicity and cowardice.”

Fernández, who has supported Rubio and Salazar in previous campaigns, believes that the attitude of Republican leaders, who are themselves children of Cuban exiles, has caused “real fear and harm to many in our community, in your districts.” Trump has adopted “a cruel stance toward immigrants that falls short of the values this country has always promised,” he emphasizes. continue reading

He warns that “revoking protected status for Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants, many of whom fled oppression just like our families, is not just policy, it’s hypocrisy.”

Mike’s family, born in Manzanillo, was forced to leave the island in 1964 and went into exile in Mexico. Shortly after, he moved to the United States with his parents and sister, where he began an impressive career in the health insurance sector. The philanthropist has become a much-talked-about voice in South Florida in recent decades. Now, in his letter, he warns that “revoking protected status for Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants, many of whom fled oppression just like our families once did, is not just a policy, it’s hypocrisy.”

Fernández also wrote about former co-finance director of Florida Governor Rick Scott’s 2014 reelection campaign, stating “When USAID funding, which directly supports efforts to foster political and social change in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and throughout the region, is eliminated overnight, it is a betrayal.” He also has made a harsh allusion to the cuts suffered by Radio and TV Martí in recent weeks.

The multimillionaire believes that Cuban-American leaders “must focus on addressing the needs of our neighbors throughout Miami-Dade County: immigrants, workers, families struggling with housing, healthcare, and opportunities.” This requires “a new strategy, one built on courage and centered on the people of South Florida, the people who elected you to represent them,” he warns Rubio, Díaz-Balart, Giménez, and Salazar.

“For decades, I have stood by you, defending the freedoms we hold dear—those denied us in the country of our birth and found in the grace of this one.”

In the statement, he also maintains his criticism of the Cuban regime: “For decades, I have stood by you, defending the freedoms we hold so dear, those denied to us in the country of our birth and found in the grace of this one.” According to the businessman, the priority of Cuban-American representatives must be, among other things, “defending human rights, condemning authoritarianism wherever it arises, whether in Havana, Caracas, Managua, Moscow, or Washington, D.C.”

“In the end, we are not measured by loyalty to a party or a president, but by loyalty to the Constitution and our principles, even when it costs us something,” he adds, but clarifies that he is not writing the letter “with anger, but with urgency, alarm, and purpose.” His letter goes beyond a public questioning of the politicians’ attitudes and assures that he will seek to enlist more people to join his petition and speak out.

“I intend to use my efforts and to ask other voices to join us in elevating this crisis in our community that cannot be ignored,” he warns. “These are the voices of mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers, students, workers, and Dreamers , all crying out for dignity, for safety, and for leadership that remembers their roots.”

Fernández recaps that Cuban-American leaders were elected thanks to the votes of the island’s exile community: “Remember, public trust is not guaranteed; it is earned and maintained,” the text emphasizes.

“I intend to use my efforts and ask other voices to join in raising this crisis in our community that cannot be ignored.”

The questioning of Cuban-American politicians has escalated in recent weeks. Earlier this month, an unequivocal sign of this discontent surprised drivers passing under the billboard on the Palmetto Expressway in Miami. “Traitors: To the immigrants, to Miami-Dade, to the American dream,” read a sign in white on red, alongside the faces of Rubio, Salazar, Giménez, and Díaz-Balart.

“Protect TPS (Temporary Protected Status),” added a smaller sign, accompanied by the Venezuelan flag. The billboard, an illuminated sign alternating with other advertisements, located in the parking lot of the Palmetto Metro station on the outskirts of the city, was funded by the Miami-Dade County Democratic Hispanic Caucus, an organization linked to the Democratic Party. Salazar, speaking to El Nuevo Herald, called the sign “cheap Castro-style propaganda.”

A few days later, the sign received a response. “We must be grateful,” read a new billboard, featuring portraits of Fidel and Raúl Castro, Miguel Díaz-Canel, Hugo Chávez, Daniel Ortega, and Nicolás Maduro. They are “the true traitors,” reads the text accompanying the images, “to freedom, to their people, to human rights.”

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